Ref. 35111 Ref. 26 Annual Meeting. NATIONAL CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM LEAGUE. AUGUST 2, 1882. In accordance with the provisions of the constitution and pursuant to call duly issued, the annual meeting of the League was convened at the Ocean House, at Newport, Rhode Island, August 2, 1882, at 12 M., the Hon. George William Curtis presiding. The following gentlemen among others were present : Boston, Mass. A. T. Sinclair, Bancroft C. Davis, Arthur Hobart, George G. Crocker, Henry H. Sprague, Causten Browne, Edwin L. Sprague, Augustus Hemenway. Worcester, Mass. James Green. Cambridge, Mass. Chas. Theo. Russell, Chas. Theo. Russell, Jr., William W. Vaughan, Morrill Wyman, Jr., James Russell Reed, George V. Leverett. Malden, Mass. Wm. B. de las Casas. Northampton, Mass. Henry M. Tyler, John E. Hammond. Newton, Mass. Henry Lambert, James P. Tolman, John W. Carter, F. F. Raymond, 2d. Wollaston, Mass. Josiah Quincy, Jr. Hartford, Conn. Edward D. Robbins. The following Associations were not directly represented: Chicago, Ill., Cleveland, O., Hartford, Conn., Lawrence, Kan., Louisville, Ky., Madison, Wis., Milwaukee, Wis., New Haven, onn., New Orleans, La., Pittsburgh, Pa., Quincy, Mass., Springeld, Mass. On taking the chair the President addressed the meeting as lows: A YEAR OF REFORM. ADDRESS BY GEO. WM. CURTIS. In welcoming you to the first annual meeting of the National Service Reform League, I congratulate you upon the bright. cts of the cause. We may well call the last year the year onal awakening upon the subject. After a desultory debate, atly increasing in interest and importance and extending 1 15 years, or since the first report of Mr. Jenckes in 1867, Issination of President Garfield, like a sudden flash of light, revealed the nature and the peril of the spoils syse whole country. The popular verdict upon that tragical s prompt and just. Except for a factional quarrel, proolly by the strife for patronage or spoils, the President have been murdered. His death has fixed general pubon upon the character and tendency of abuses of adinherent in the present system of appointment and In the subordinate civil service, abuses which have |