Page:The World's Famous Orations Volume 10.djvu/168

 THE WORLD'S FAMOUS ORATIONS

and retaining babits and customs repugnant to our civilization.

The people demand reform in the administra- tion of the government and the application of business principles to public affairs. As a means to this end. civil service reform should he in good faith enforced. Our citizens have the right to protection from the incompetency of public employees who hold their places solely as the reward of partizan service, and from the cor- rupting influence of those who promise and the vicious methods of those who expect such re- wards; and those who worthily seek public em- ployment have the right to insist that merit and competency shall be recognized instead of party subserviency or the surrender of honest political belief.

In the administration of a government pledged to do equal and exact justice to all men, there should be no pretext for anxiety touching the protection of the freedmen in their rights or their security in the enjoyment of their privi- leges under the Constitution and its amend- ments. All discussion as to their fitness for the place accorded to them as American citizens is idle and unprofitable except as it suggests the necessity for their improvement. The fact that they are citizens entitles them to all the rights due to that relation and charges them with all its duties, obligations, and responsibilities.

These topics and the constant and ever-vary- ing wants of an active and enterprising popula- 136

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