Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/191

Rh up of the administrative machinery every four years, to be accompanied and followed by the scandals which we now witness. Who of them ever thought of it, that a competent and worthy officer should be removed as long as he was competent and worthy? Nay, let me say to the Senator: if the great Fathers of the Republic, if Washington and Jefferson and Madison and Hamilton could rise up from the dead and look at the spectacle which now so frequently presents itself to our eyes, they would stand aghast at the perversion which the beautiful fabric of the government, as they designed it, has suffered at the hands of subsequent generations.

I wish to ask the Senator if the system which he is now assailing was not established by the Fathers of this Republic, and if all the evils of which he complains may not be remedied by electing a man President of the United States who will return to the early practices of the Republic?

Have we not elected more than once men to the Presidency of the United States upon whose integrity and sagacity and wisdom we built the highest hopes? Can the Senator point out within the reach of his memory a single President of the United States who ever dared to attempt the sweeping reform of which he speaks? Does he expect, as long as the present system prevails, if a change of party control should occur, that then a President would have the strength to rise up and say, “I will have no longer a partisan organization in the public service?” Does he think that such a President could thus control the greed of his partisan followers? Does he expect any party that may follow ours in the control of affairs, to abstain from grasping the spoils if there is no impediment in the way? To produce such a result would require a tremendous revolution in popular sentiment. I certainly would hail with delight such an