Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/155

Rh wrote a letter to Colonel Cooper, stating that he had known me from boyhood and requesting that I be provided for. I took that up and gave it to Colonel Cooper, who had always received me very pleasantly, and he told me to come next day and he would see. Then he said, “Go up-stairs and tell Mr. Creecy that I sent you up to look over the books and select the place you want.”

Let me interrupt the Secretary there. I will state, in order to shorten the story, that the gentleman was appointed, and that this case happened under the Administration of Andrew Johnson, when Mr. Smythe was collector of New York. There is a sample of Congressional appointment in the customhouse at New York, and what has happened is not unlikely to happen again. It is the natural outgrowth of the system.

But Congressional influences are by no means the worst in filling places in the customhouse. They may, and undoubtedly do, sometimes lead to the appointment of good men. But now the ward politician of the great Babel steps upon the scene with his followers, the mighty man who packs caucuses and controls nominations, who does the heavy work at the ballot-box, and attends to the political work done in the grog-shops. His voice is heard in the distribution of office, and the voice of such men of influence cannot be disregarded with impunity.

The other day the Senator from New Hampshire [Mr. ] showed you that, as the investigations of the Retrenchment Committee prove, the New York custom house, too, suffers from men to be provided for, for whom offices must be created, even if the service does not need them. He cited the case of an old apple-woman having a stand near the customhouse who had been on the pay-roll of that institution at New York for months. I presume she represents the case of a woman to be provided for. She had, perhaps, some son or cousin keeping a