Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/167

Rh appointment they most ardently, anxiously advocate, while the Cabinet minister has in the drawer of his table confidential notes from the same honorable Congressmen requesting him not to pay any regard to the recommendation which they are just so eloquently and affectionately urging. Why, sir, I know that assertion of Secretary Cox to be true, for I myself have been informed by two heads of Departments that such cases are by no means infrequent.

Well, sir, look at the member of Congress who does this. You may pity the poor constituent who is thus deceived. But is not the honorable gentleman who resorts to such tricks of duplicity, and who stands as a liar before himself, to be more despised than pitied? And yet you may pity him also. For he is a victim of the spoils system as it works upon the frailties of Congressional human nature. But what will the man who does this be capable of doing afterward? And what will you say of a system which brings forth such results among the representatives of the people, who make the laws of the country?

Let us proceed. The machinery of the home influence is now constructed, and the Congressman thinks he has accomplished what he needs for his future prospects. But something new intervenes. It happens that the Executive has a pet scheme of which the Congressman conscientiously disapproves. Here is a complication. Does he insist upon his opposition? Then the Executive may threaten to withdraw his favor from him and to remove his appointees. If, on the other hand, he yields, the Executive may promise not only to keep those in office who were appointed upon his recommendation but to grant new favors to him. There, sir, is that great struggle between conscience and interest which has brought so many a man to his fall. Will such things happen? They may happen; nay, sir, they have happened; and the Spoils system invites them with such