Page:Harvard Address on Civil Service Reform p57.jpg

 conditions under which they may be servants of the people and at the same time true freemen, with a conscience and principles of their own, and with the true pride of manhood intact; conditions inviting and encouraging the fullest development and exertions of their best abilities inspired by the noblest aspirations of American citizenship. Such conditions the elimination of spoils politics from our public life will powerfully help to secure; and we may all say, therefore, that civil service reform is prominently the cause of the young American who hopes to serve the republic with honor to himself and profit to the country.