PtmI-  It  was  decided  as  early  as  1789  that  the  power  to

^•**'*  appoint  implies  the  power  to  remove  from  office.*
of  rm-^  Such  power  is  absolutely  essential  to  an  efficient  gov-
ernment, but  it  carries  with  it  the  opportimity  for  its
grave  misuse  in  the  promotion  of  purely  partisan
ends.  It  puts  enormous  power  in  the  hands  of  tke
President  and  heads  of  departments,  since  it  places
almost  every  position  in  the  civil  service  imcondition-
ally  at  their  pleasure.  It  is  hardly  too  much  to  say
that  the  spoils  system  is  really  little  more  than  a  per-

>  Artide  11,  section  2.  *  See  Parsons  vs.  U.  S.,  167  U.  S.,  324.
mavid


The  Spoils  System  371

version  of  the  right  of  removal,  its  prostitution  to
merely  partisan  uses.  At  the  present  time  the  Presi-
dent has  the  power  to  remove  at  discretion  all  offi-
cers whom  he  appoints  directly  or  through  the  mem-
bers of  his  cabinet,  except  judges  of  the  Federal
courts  and  military  and  naval  officers  who  ordinarily
have  a  right  to  trial  by  a  court  martial  before  removal.
Down  to  1820  it  was  tacitly  imderstood  that  the  F<mr-jetr-
subordinate  officers  and  employees  of  all  kinds  in  the  ^^
Federal  civil  service  should  hold  their  office  during  ©'"Sao
good  behavior.  Presidents  and  heads  of  departments
exercised  their  power  of  removing  subordinates  rarely,
and  seldom,  if  at  all,  for  merely  partisan  piuposes.
