Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. III.djvu/186

152 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS orders in a part of the Union, and the necessity of their repression and correction, but declared him self satisfied, at the same time, that the evil was diminishing. Again he argued in favor of civil- service reform, especially competitive examina tions, which had been conducted with great success in some of the executive departments and adopted by his direction in the larger custom-houses and post-offices. He reiterated his recommendation of an appropriation for the civil-service commission, and of a law against political assessments. He also, to stop the interference of members of con gress with the civil service, suggested that an act be passed "defining the relations of members of congress with regard to appointments to office by the president," and that the tenure-of -office act be repealed. He recommended "that congress pro vide for the government of Utah by a governor and judges, or commissioners, appointed by the pres ident and confirmed by the senate a government analogous to the provisional government estab lished for the territory northwest of the Ohio, by the ordinance of 1787," dispensing with an elected territorial legislature. The president announced that on November 17 two treaties had been signed at Peking by the commissioners of the United States and the plenipotentiaries of the emperor of China one purely commercial, and the other authorizing