The Great Carpetbagger Grievance

In the platform adopted in 1884 by the convention which nominated Grover Cleveland for the presidency was inserted the following plank, and, as Mr. Cleveland accepted the nomination, it was supposed that in so doing he approved the sentiment set forth in it: 'The selection of federal officers for the territories should be restricted to citizens resident thereto.' Nearly four years have passed and we find that the president has adhered as firmly to this idea as he has to his civil service reform and second term principles; that is to say, he has done just what he said he would not do and left undone just what he said would be done. With few exceptions, every federal office in the territories has been filled with a non-resident. Notwithstanding the fact that good and reliable local men were available, whose appointment would have made a worthy and most commendable precedent, he has filled up the territorial offices with politicians and time-servers, whose only recommendation, as a rule, has been that they were loyal to the Cleveland cause and did good work during the campaign. The emoluments of territorial offices are not such as warrant any man who has made a reasonable success of life in coming to the far West, and for this reason, with of course some few exceptions, these offices have been filled with broken-down politicians and aspiring youngsters who flatter themselves with the belief that, with the prestige of having held a federal office, they will, when the territory shall have attained statehood, be looked upon as good timber for the national house of representatives or the United States senate.