Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/169

Rh to the favors of that Department. Shall he give up his appointees, or violate his duty in ignoring the abuses?

The thing has sometimes been turned the other way. I am reliably informed that Congressmen have gone to a head of Department and threatened him that unless he appointed their particular protégés, they would vote against the appropriations for the Department. To appoint supernumeraries would have been a grave violation of duty on the part of the head of the Department. And yet, under the pressure of the spoils system, a Congressman demands it, with the threat that unless it be done he will violate his duty in a manner equally gross, by voting against a necessary appropriation.

But it appears in still another shape. A Congressman has procured an appointment for one of his friends, an appointment of great responsibility. He has, so to say, pledged his honor for the honor of the officer. That man commits gross misconduct; under his management serious abuses develop themselves. Is not the Congressman sorely tempted to cover up or whitewash that delinquency instead of fearlessly exposing it and bringing the guilty man to punishment? Is not there again the interest of the Congressman, under the influence of the Spoils system, working directly against the interest of the public good?

And now, sir, we arrive at a very interesting and some what startling question: can a Congressman, under the present system, be entirely honest? That question has been addressed to me by an intelligent observer, and my first impulse was at once to say, certainly he can. Yes, I believe he can; but I declare, sir, when you survey the whole field, when you study the influences of the present system upon the frailties of human nature, you will admit that it is exceedingly difficult for him to be so. The system is a hotbed of that peculiar kind of corruption which is the more dangerous as it does not appear in the