Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/312

292 the latter, at the same time, being destroyed by an excessive augmentation of their number. But while the honest and wise men of the South will reject such schemes, as dishonoring the good name of the American people, as destroying our credit and throwing the whole financial system of the country, and all our business interests into disastrous confusion, would it not also be a prudent thing for them to aid in the establishment of a policy which, instead of hurrying on the payment of the National debt with uncalled-for haste, and for that purpose burdening the people with taxes unnecessarily onerous, would lighten the burden of taxation to a point still amply sufficient for the discharge of our obligations as they come due, and permit the exhaustion caused by the war to be overcome, and the business interests of the country to recuperate, before we indulge in the fancy to do a big thing by paying off the debt at the rate of over a hundred millions a year? Do not you need the alleviation of the burden of taxation as much, and more, than the North? Why not step forward, then, and help in a movement to bring it about?

Why should you sit still and fold your arms, while a movement is set on foot to reform the civil service of the Government? Has not the South suffered as much and even more, under existing abuses, than the rest of the country? And are not your interests, therefore, in intimate connection with the interests of all? Nay, you especially should insist upon the demanded reform. Look at it. The patronage, that system of selfish and arbitrary favoritism, has made the public offices the mere spoils of the victorious party. The officers of the Government have become a political army, commanded by one man and his satellites. It rests with the President to use his power to appoint and to remove as a machinery of corruption and intimidation. Our great political contests