Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/515

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&emsp; I thank you for the congratulation you offer me on my election to the Senate and for the friendly feelings you express in your letter of the 21st inst. You know well that our antagonism with regard to that matter was not of my seeking, and I may assure you that my conduct as a Senator from Missouri will be governed entirely by considerations of public interest without any ingredient of personal resentment. I certainly do not desire “any other relations between us, as colleagues, than those of respect, good-will and cordial coöperation.” I thank you sincerely for your kindness in selecting a good seat for me. 



&emsp; I wrote you yesterday before I had your letter, which arrived this morning. I am surprised you did “not understand” my speech. Everybody here understood it. It is certain—at any rate it is clear to everybody here—that civil service reform measures have little if any chance of success in Congress, unless we manage to produce a pressure. And there is nothing so available and so easy within reach as this law, of which everybody knows that it will have to be amended. If we succeed in keeping the necessity of doing something in this matter alive, we have a splendid chance to make a regular reform campaign next winter. But if the matter is now finally disposed of, as it would be by a repeal, the probability is that we shall have to struggle hard to bring the reform bill properly before the two houses, with chances rather against us.