Fourth Generation Inclusive

The official bond of Buckner Simmons, in the sum of $1000 (W.J. Warner and S.C. Kane sureties), as bridge tender was read from the President’s desk and approved. Subsequently the approval was reconsidered, whatever that may amount to, because somebody discovered that Mr. Simmons had never been even nominated to be a bridge tender. Evidently he was one of the innumerable army of office seekers who had a sure thing on an appointment and had taken time by the forelock got his bond, had it approved by the solicitor as to legality and sufficiency and chucked it in somewhere among council documents so that in the course of time it was dug up and blindly approved by the new council of civil service reformers and economists. Mr. George Warner asked how the bond came before the council. President Everett said he didn’t know but it came into his hands through the regular channel – not explaining what it was. Mr. Warner retorted that “it must be a great channel.”

Plain Dealer, Cleveland OH, 22 May 1877.