Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/151

Rh The salary is $9000 and the outfit is $9000, making $18,000. Mr. Livingston is losing you more than two million dollars every month. You cannot remove Livingston. I know you cannot remove him; but I will tell you what you can do. There is a vacancy soon to take place at Chili; let him be sent as chargé d'affaires to Chili.” I went further, and said to him, “You had better send for Bishop Hughes, and send for Mrs. Hamilton, and tell her that the post of appraiser is not the post for Mr. Livingston; that he wants a better place; that you want a Catholic to represent us at the Court of Chili; that the pay is $4500, and the outfit $4500.” Mr. Walker said nothing; but I saw that it made an impression on him; and in about three months I saw in the papers that Mr. Livingston had gone to Chili.

Now, Mr. President, you may think that this is an old story and that such things do not happen to-day. I will tell you of the case of a man to be provided for that came under my own personal observation, and with which I was myself somewhat connected, a circumstance which I by no means mention with pride—it was one of those early errors which, under the present system, a Senator at the commencement of his career is apt to fall into. After the incoming of this Administration, a gentleman of my acquaintance who had strong “claims” desired to be appointed postmaster in a Western city, but the President happened to put one of his own friends into that office; and so the man to be provided for could not be postmaster. Then the delegation of his State agreed to make him pension agent at the same place; but then an influential member of that delegation opposed him, and so he could not be pension agent. Then he took his case into his own hands, for he knew that he was a man to be provided for, and the President nominated him as Minister Resident to a South American republic. Having obtained that, he thought