EXECUTIVE MANSION,

WASHINGTON, September 1, 1885.

MY DEAR SIR:

I am in receipt of your letter tendering your resignation as a member of the Board of Civil Service Commissioners. I cannot refrain from expressing my sincere regret that you have determined to withdraw from a position in the public service where your intelligent performance of duty has been of inestimable value to the country. The friends of civil service reform, and all those who desire good government, fully appreciate your devotion to the cause in which you early enlisted and they have seen with satisfaction that your zeal and faith have not led you to suppose that the reform in which you were engaged is unsuited to the rules which ordinarily govern progress in human affairs, or that it should at once reach perfection and universal acceptance. You have been willing patiently to accept good results as they, step by step, could be gained, holding every advance with unyielding steadfastness.

The success which, thus far, has attended the work of civil service reform is largely due to the fact that its practical friends have proceeded upon the theory that real and healthy progress can only be made as such of the people who cherish pernicious political ideas, long fostered and encouraged by vicious partisanship, are persuaded that the change contemplated by the reform offers substantial improvement and benefits. A reasonable toleration for old prejudices, a graceful recognition of every aid, a sensible utilization of every instrumentality that promises assistance, and a constant effort to demonstrate the advantages of the new order of things are the means by which this reform movement will, in the future, be further advanced, the opposition of incorrigible spoilsmen rendered ineffectual, and the cause placed upon a sure foundation. Of course, there should be no surrender of principle nor backward step, and all laws for the enforcement of the reform should be rigidly executed; but the benefits which its principles promise will not be fully realized unless the acquiescence of the people is added to the stern assertion of a doctrine arid the vigorous execution of the laws.

It is a source of congratulation that there are so many friends of civil service reform marshaled on the practical side of the question, and that the number is not greater of those who profess friendliness for the cause, and yet mischievously, and with supercilious self-righteousness, discredit every effort not in exact accord with their attenuated ideas, decry with carping criticism the labor of those actually in the field of reform, and, ignoring the conditions which bound and qualify every struggle for a radical improvement in the affairs of government, demand complete and immediate perfection.

The reference in your letter to the attitude of the members of my cabinet toward the merit system established by the civil service law, besides being entirely correct, exhibits an appreciation of honest endeavor in the direction of reform, and a disposition to do justice to proved sincerity, which is most gratifying. If such treatment of those upon whom the duty rests of administering the government according to reform methods was the universal rule, and if the embarrassments and perplexities attending such an administration were fairly regarded by all those professing to be friendly to such methods, the avowed enemies of the cause would be afforded less encouragement.

I believe in civil service reform and its application in the most practicable form attainable, among other reasons, because it opens the door for the rich and the poor alike to a participation in public place holding. And I hope the time is at hand when all our people will see the advantage of a reliance for such an opportunity upon merit and fitness instead of upon the caprice or selfish interest of those who impudently stand between the people and the machinery of their government. In the one case, a reasonable intelligence, and the education which is freely furnished or forced upon the youth of our land, are the credentials to office; in the other, the way is found in favor, secured by a participation. in partisan work often unfitting a person morally, if not mentally and physically, for the responsibilities and duties of public employment.

You will agree with me, I think, that the support which has been given to the present administration in its efforts to preserve and advance this reform, by a party restored to power after an exclusion for many years from participation in the places attached to the public service; confronted with a new system precluding the redistribution of such places in its interest; called upon to surrender advantages which a perverted partisanship had taught the American people belonged to success, and perturbed with the suspicions, always raised in such an emergency, that their rights in the conduct of this reform

had not been scrupulously regarded, should receive due acknowledgment, and should confirm our belief that there is a sentiment among the people better than a desire to hold office, and a patriotic impulse upon which may safely rest the integrity of our institutions and the strength and perpetuity of our government.

I have determined to request you to retain your present position until the 1st day of November next, at which time your resignation may become operative. I desire to express my entire confidence in your attachment to the cause of civil service reform and your ability to render it efficient aid, and I indulge the hope and expectation that, notwithstanding the acceptance of your resignation, your interest in the object for which you have labored so assiduously will continue beyond the official term which you surrender.

Yours very truly,

GROVER CLEVELAND.