16

LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS
390

CHAPTER V.
PRESIDENT CLEVELAND' S ADMINISTRATION.

Circumstances of Cleveland's election – Political standing of the District of Columbia –
Estimate of Cleveland's character – Respect for Mr. Cleveland – Decline of strength in the
Republican Party – Time of gloom for the colored people – Reason for the defeat of
Blaine.

The last year of my service in the comfortable office of Recorder of Deeds
for the District of Columbia, to which aspirants have never been few in number
or wanting in zeal, was under the early part of the remarkable administration
of President Grover Cleveland. It was thought by some of my friends
and especially by my Afro-American critics, that I ought to have instantly
resigned this office upon the incoming of the new administration. I do not
know how much the desirableness of the office influenced my opinion in an
opposite direction, for the human heart is very deceitful, but I took a different
view in this respect from my colored critics. The office of Recorder, like
that of the Register of Wills, is a purely local office, though held at the pleasure
of the President, and it is in no sense a federal or political office. The
Federal Government provides no salary for it. It is supported solely by fees
paid for work actually done by its employees, for the citizens of the District
of Columbia. While these citizens, outside the eager applicants for the place,
made no complaint of my continuance in the office, I saw no reason to retire
from it. Then too, President Cleveland did not appear to be in haste or to
desire my resignation half as much as some of my Afro-American brethren
desired me to make room for them. Besides, he owed his election to a peculiar
combination of circumstances favorable to my remaining where I was.
He had been supported by Republican votes as well as by Democratic votes.
He had been the candidate of civil service reformers, the fundamental idea
of whom is that there should be no removal from office the duties of which
have been fully and faithfully performed by the incumbent. Being elected by
the votes of civil service reformers there was an implied political obligation
imposed upon Mr. Cleveland to respect the idea represented by the votes of
these reformers. During the first part of his administration, the time in
which I held office under him, the disposition on the part of the President to
fulfill that obligation was quite manifest and the feeling at the time was that
we were entering upon a new era of American politics, in which there would
be no removals from office on the ground of party politics. It seemed that
for better or for worse we had reversed the practice of both parties in our
political history and that the old formula "To the victor belong the spoils"