Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/517

Rh and am doing for him the best I can. But this is a lottery, and heaven knows upon what mysterious theory the distribution of prizes is made. Whether I shall be able to get something for Mr. Waldauer, I cannot say. I shall, at any rate, spare no effort. I have worked very hard for my friends. In some cases I have not succeeded at all, in others too much. So it goes. Some Missourians have been favored with consulates by a providential dispensation which an ordinary understanding cannot fathom, and which, I am sure, I did not control.

To be a United States Senator may be a very high honor. But so far I have found it to be the meanest drudgery a human imagination ever conceived. I hope I have now seen the worst of it. The utter absurdity of our system of appointment to office has this time so glaringly demonstrated itself that even the dullest patriots begin to open their eyes to the necessity of a reform. I have taken a solemn vow to pitch in for it next winter to the best of my ability.

No prospect is at this moment so pleasing to me as to shake you by the hand again very soon at a solemn meeting of the twentieth century. 



&emsp; I thank you for your kind letter and your approval of my speech on the Georgia bill. I have made a much better one since on the San Domingo treaty, and I think that will be your judgment when the injunction of secrecy will be removed and you see it. In my own opinion, that