of conflict—­if any.  We might, it is true, take many measures to ensure the colorless and harmless character of the system.  Up to a recent time the government clerks in England were deprived of the suffrage, in order that they might be perfectly indifferent to politics.  It is probable that in time our own officials would lose the ordinary instincts of a democratic citizenship, and would regard with coldness, if not contempt, the activities that lead to a renewal of the government.  But however smoothly they might move in the pursuance of their clerical routine, however faultless they might become in their round of prescribed duties, would they not still obstruct the public purpose?  Would not even this emasculate order of placemen, standing apart a sacrificed though favored class, still present themselves as unpardonable offenders?  When it should be discovered that they claimed the possession in perpetuity of the offices in the national government, and had organized themselves as a standing army of placemen, can it be believed that they would not be swept aside by the same iconoclastic onset which ended the Adams administration?

We do not pause here to represent the apparent inconsistency of desiring to de-citizenize a large number of intelligent members of the community, or the risk of creating a class in the republic forbidden to take any active interest in the renewals of its organization, or the impolicy of diminishing the force and courage of the popular will in its grapple with the problem of self-government; but all these comments may suggest themselves.

Popular expectancy, it may fairly be declared, follows all the stations of public life with a jealous if not an eager eye.  There is abundant evidence of this in the county and township systems.  Taking, for example, the administration of county affairs in any of the States, it will be found that the officers, by a rule that seems generally satisfactory, hold during short terms, and are seldom re-elected immediately to the same place.  The rule is rotation—­giving a large number of persons their “turn”—­and changes are regularly made.  A man disappointed this year for a particular place waits until the time comes to fill it again, and in many counties, other things being about equal, the fact that he has waited patiently and now presents the oldest claim governs the selection.  The antipathy to one who seeks to hold on to his place beyond the ordinary term—­the dislike for a grabber who desires more than is usually assigned—­is a perfectly well-known feature in politics.  The county system of Pennsylvania will afford abundant proof of the statements here made:  the terms of the officers, who are all elective, do not average more than four years, even including such court-officials as the clerks and prothonotaries, whose duties are in some particulars technical and difficult, requiring an acquaintance with the forms of legal procedure.  But it is further true that in the States where county officers are appointed by the governor no protracted tenure results.  On the contrary, the pressure upon him of the public expectation seldom permits the reappointment of an officer whose commission is expiring.