Of Twenty Applicants, Nineteen Are Made Enemies
Hampered, harassed, and hounded by office-seekers, the President once opened his confidence on this irritating point to a conscientious public officer. He wished the senators and others would start and stimulate public sentiment toward changes in public offices being made on good and sufficient cause—that is, plainly, never on party considerations. The ideal civil service, in a word. Nine-tenths of his vexations were due to seekers of sinecures.
“It seems to me that such visitors dart at me and, with finger and thumb, carry off a portion of my vitality,” was his saying.
His hearer laughed at the image, but the other pursued earnestly:
“I have made up my mind to make very few changes in the offices in my gift for my second term. I think, now, that I shall not move a single man, except for delinquency. To remove a man is very easy, but when I go to fill his place, there are twenty applicants, and of these I must make nineteen enemies.”—(Authenticated by Senator Clark, of New Hampshire, to whom the confidence was imparted.)1
Notes
1 Secretary Blaine, out of his similar experience, reiterated the sentiment thus: “When I choose one out of ten applicants to fill an office, I find that nine have become my enemies and one is an ingrate.”