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Show Cleveland's Act Explained He Made Pearson Postmaster at New York to Prove the Sincerity of His Advocacy of CIvM Service. One of the first appointments made by President Cleveland after he had sent the names of his cabinet nominations nomina-tions to the senate a few hours after his first inauguration In 1889, was that of Henry G. Pearson as postmaster at New York. It has always been a public mystery why President Cleveland, the first Democratic president since Buchanan, should have decided to make practically practical-ly his first important appointment out-side out-side of his cabinet appointments that of a very prominent Republican to a very influential office. Mr Cleveland, when there came a Democratic howl over the giving of the country's largest postoffice .into the keeping of a member mem-ber of the opposite political faith, gave no reason for his choice Nor did he offer any explanation to many or his more intimate political friends who hinted that they were puzzled over the appointment Now, however, 1 am able to give the reason as President Cleveland gave It to one who, after Mr. Cleveland had retired to private life, asked him the cause of the appointment; ap-pointment; and I think this Is the first public explanation ever made of the appointment "Mr. Pearson's appointment was urged upon me by Just one Republican, Republi-can, and because he urged It It was made," said Mr. Cleveland. "The Republican Re-publican who urged the appointment In face of the fact that he knew there were plenty of Democrats who were hungering to be appointed postmaster of New York was Dorman B. Eaton, the civil service reformer. He told me that if I would reappoint Mr. Pearson postmaster at New York 1 wpuS do more to advance the cause or civil service than I could accomplish in a 4ozen recommendations to congress. "1,'' Pearson, Mr. Eaton told me, had been the executive head of the civil service system in the New York post office from the time of its Inception, Incep-tion, both as assistant postmaster and as postmaster under Arthur. He further fur-ther told me that It was largely through the succeess of the civil service ser-vice in the New York post office that he had been able to induce congress in 1883 to act favorably upon the first civil service bill ever presented to congress. That was the bill championed cham-pioned by George H. Pendleton of Ohio In the senate. Mr. Eaton drafted that act, though it came to bear Senator Sen-ator Pendleton's name, and It was Eaton who largely kept the members of congress who were fighting for the passage of this civil service bill supplied sup-plied with arguments and moral courage. cour-age. "But that was not all that Mr. Eaton told me," continued Mr. Cleveland. "He did not hesitate to remind me that as I was known to be a warm advocate ad-vocate of civil service It would be difficult dif-ficult for me to make my public advocacy advo-cacy of civil service consistent with my conduct if I were to Ignore Postmaster Post-master Pearson, who had done so much for civil service, and give his office to a Democrat On the other hand, Mr. Eaton went on to to say that If I were to reappoint Mr. Pearson postmaster. Republican though he was, I would thereby show how consistent and sincere my attitude upon civil service was. "That was a line of reasoning that it was hard to escape from, and so 1 decided to nominate Mr. Pearson for postmaster, and I did. I had some of the party leaders barking at me, one in particular criticizing me severely for giving one of the best offices at the disposal of the president to a Republican. Repub-lican. But 1 never regretted making that appointment, and 1 am certain thai the making of it did much to persuade per-suade the public of the sincerity of my advocacy of the civil service." Copyright, 1911. by E. J. Edwards. All Rights Reserved.) |
