Maine -- inhabitants of Bucksport. Memorial from inhabitants of Bucksport, in the State of Maine, praying for a permanent revenue, and correction of abuses in affairs of government. January 20, 1841. Ordered to lie on the table.

Date: 1841-01-20; Author: U.S. Congress. House
Serial Set Vol. No. 383, Session Vol. No.2
26th Congress, 2nd Session
H.Doc. 67

26th Congress, 2d Session.                              Doc. No. 67                                    No. of Reps: 23

MAINE - INHABITANTS OF BUCKSPORT
FROM
INHABITANTS OF BUCKSPORT, IN THE STATE OF MAINE,
PRAYING
For a permanent revenue, and correction of abuses in affairs of Government.
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JANUARY 20, 1841.
Ordered to lie on the table
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To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled:

          The undersigned inhabitants of the town of Bucksport and vicinity, in the Penobscot collection district, in the State of Maine, believing the time will soon arrive for fixing, with some permanency, the course to be pursued in regard to the revenue and expenditures of our National Government, the keeping and disbursing of the public moneys, they look to the future with much solicitude, and respectfully inquire whether the American system is to be abandoned, our manufactures, fisheries, & c., to be left without protection and encouragement, our tariff laws to be repealed, and direct taxation to be resorted to, to meet the public wants?
          Supposing these important subjects will have the attention of the present.  Congress, we ask permission to present our views upon some others intimately connected with them; confining ourselves principally to a consideration of what we deem abuses in the department of finance, and a single branch of that department - the collection of the public revenue, and the compensation for that service.
          We believe facts will sustain us in saying that, while the public revenue has been recently decreasing, the expense of securing and collecting it has been increasing in much more than an inverse ratio; and if the onward progress of extravagance in the department is not soon arrested, the receipts will, in a few years, be inadequate, from that source alone, to meet this expense.  We give a few facts, as we believe them, by way of illustration:
          The revenue in the city and port of New York is less, at the present time, than in 1828-'9, when 160 to 170 persons were employed by that office, and their compensation $120,000 per annum.  At the present, or a recent period, 488 persons were employed, and their compensation $540,000 per annum - on increase of more than three for one in numbers, and four and a half for one in the amount of compensation - and for collecting a diminished revenue!  We find there, in a population embracing 44,000 registered voters, one person employed for every ninety voters, and the compensation equal in amount to twelve dollars per annum for each voter.  "A formidable list, truly," and a formidable sum for their support!
          We give another example: The deputy collector in this place (Bucksport) was removed in 1831-'2; and with his successor came an additional compensation of some $800 to $1,000 per annum, which has continued to the present time.  No difficulty can exist, however, in obtaining the services of a faithful and competent officer for one-half the sum now paid, or less.
          At the village of Castine, with a population of 1,000 or 1,200 inhabitants, there were, in 1837, as per register, beside the collector of this district, two inspectors at each $1,095; one inspector, measurer, &c., at $870; and others employed, or said to be so, occasionally.  Sine that time, there have been additions to the force and expenses, we learn; but to what extent, are not certain.  We believe that the whole business of that office requires no greater force than a collector, with a deputy and some other occasionally, with an expense not exceeding $1,500 per annum.
          Having thus presented the two extremes, or nearly so, we believe the space between presents a vast field for retrenchment, by which our public expenditures would be greatly reduced not only, but he corrupting influence of patronage would be stayed in its onward progress, and the peace and happiness of this community promoted.
          We cannot perceive the necessity for appointing a collector, inspectors, measurers, weighers, gauges, &c., assigning to each certain duties, with each a large salary, the aggregate much exceeding the income, when the whole service would require but a small portion of the time of one or two persons.  If, in the foregoing statements, we have gone beyond the truth in any instance, we have not so done from a desire to exaggerate, but in the absence of documentary evidence, to which we respectfully invite your attention.
          We find no language which will better present our views than that of a report on the subject of executive patronage, made some years sine to the United States Senate, by a gentlemen then, as now, filling a prominent station in that honorable body.  He says: "So long as offices were considered as public trusts for the common good, and not for the benefit of the incumbent or his party; and so long as it was the practice of Government to continue in office those faithfully performing their duties, its patronage, in fact, was limited to nominating to accidental vacancies, or newly-created offices; it had but a moderate influence in the community, or over office holders themselves.  But when offices, instead of being considered as public trusts to the deserving, were regarded as the spoils of victory, bestowed as rewards for partisan services, without respect to merit; when given to be understood that all who hold by the tenure of partisan zeal and party services, it is evident that the certain, direct, and inevitable tendency of such a state of things would be a convert those in office into corrupt and subtle instruments of power, and to raise up a host of hungry, greedy, and subservient partisans, ready for any service, however low and corrupt.  Were a premium offered for the best mode of extending, to the utmost, the power of patronage, to destroy the love of country, and to substitute a spirit of subserviency and man worship, to encourage vice and discourage virtue, and, in a word, to prepare for the subversion of liberty and the establishment of despotism, no scheme more perfect could be devised; and such must be the tendency."
          Such is the reasoning of the eloquent author; and were he to reverse his position, and reason from effect to cause, he would find abundant evidence of the soundness of his argument and the legitimacy of his original deductions.
          We view the large salaries of our public officers as a tempting hair which has been held out to political partisans and demagogues to stimulate their zeal for securing in their stations in persons by whom themselves were appointed- the compensation being generally greatly disproportioned to the service rendered and required, greatly disproportioned to that given for services in mercantile and other pursuits, where the cares, duties, and responsibilities are not less.  The object is of such magnitude, that a multitude of expectants start for the prize; the modest and meritorious retire in disgust from the arena; and the most noisy, reckless, and unprincipled carry it off!
          Hence we find everywhere the power of executive patronage coming into conflict with the freedom of elections, and its absorbing and corrupting influence sown broadcast over this over goodly heritage.
          Against all this we respectfully but earnestly and fearlessly protest, and ask of the Congress of these United States a reform - not in theory, but in practice; not the shadow, but the substance.
          We presume not to suggest the mode or measure of retrenchment; the detail we submit to your superior wisdome and intelligence.
          BUCKSPORT, December, 1840.