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“Precious Jewell of They Return”
No caption
This
cartoon honors Marshall Jewell (left), who returns from his assignment
as the American minister to Russia in order to accept the position of
postmaster general of the United States. As he disembarks from the
ship, Jewell is greeted by (left-right) Secretary of State Hamilton
Fish, President Ulysses S. Grant, Secretary of War William Belknap, and Secretary of the Navy
George Robeson.
The title's quote is from Shakespeare's Richard II. Marshall
Jewell was born in New Hampshire in 1825, and did not receive a formal
education. As a young man, he was employed constructing and
supervising telegraph lines, as well as in his family's belt factory in
Hartford, Connecticut, in which he became a partner in 1850. Over
the next several years, he worked in banking, railroad, and other
businesses, and was part owner of the Hartford Evening Post.
Jewell entered politics after the Civil War, running unsuccessfully
as a Republican for the Connecticut State Senate in 1867 and the
Connecticut governorship in 1868. The next year, he won the annual
election as the state's chief executive, and then lost his reelection
bid in 1870, only to regain the governorship in 1871. Two years
later, President Grant appointed Jewell as the minister to Russia, and
again turned to him in 1874 after having difficulty finding a
replacement for the postmaster generalship.
Taking office in September 1874, Jewell manifested his commitment to
civil service reform, and refused to appoint Republicans to postal
positions simply because they were Republicans. He believed that
applying the business principles of merit appointments, promotion, and
tenure would improve the efficiency of government service and enhance
the Republican reputation as the party of reform. Although
President Grant initially supported him, tensions arose between Jewell
and Grant
and other Republican leaders as the 1876 elections
approached.
The Post Office Department was by far the major source of government
patronage, employing tens of thousands of workers who doubled in
election years as partisan campaign workers and financial contributors
(being compelled to return a percentage of their salaries to their
party). Jewell's adamant refusal to dismiss Democrats in order to
replace them with Republicans put him at odds with his party's
mainstream. Adding insult to injury, the postmaster general backed
Treasury Secretary Benjamin Bristow's prosecution of those implicated in
the Whiskey Ring
scandal. Grant asked for Jewell's
resignation, and received it on July 12, 1876.
Jewell continued to participate in Republican politics, campaigning
for presidential candidate Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, opposing Grant's
bid for a third term in 1880, and serving as national party chairman
from 1880 until his death in February 1883. Jewell did live long
enough to see passage of the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in
January 1883.
Robert C. Kennedy
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