Page:The Spoils System (spoilssystemaddr00carl).pdf/22

 music lessons abroad. Then there are others who maintain that they have fairly earned Indian agencies, or revenue positions, or places as chiefs of bureaus or at least of divisions in some Department at Washington. They and their friends all insist that the new member of Congress is in honor bound to procure them these things, that he certainly can do it if he will, that it will cost him only a word, and that if he fails to do it, his party in the district will suffer grievously, and he himself in particular.

About the time the new President goes into power, our new Congressman, loaded with petitions and recommendations, rushes on to Washington to plunge into that fearful spoils-carnival called a change of administration. He travels in lively company; not a few of his constituents who hold, or believe they hold, his promises go with him to keep him to his work, each expecting him to make case a special one. The poor man’s first night in Washington is troubled with disquieting visions. Has he not seen among his traveling companions Smith, to whom he during the campaign opened a prospect of the postmastership at Blankville, while he had positively promised that postmastership to Jones? And here they are both in bodily presence, each anxious to close the final mortgage each holds on the same piece of property.

Our new member of Congress has always considered himself a man of integrity and honor. He now instinctively feels that he is in a situation in which a