Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/393

Rh cipal objection is the usurpation of the Presidential power of appointment which it involves. Congress, as my ‘letter’ intimates, has done this too much in the past.” You know how decidedly I stand by your letter in that respect, but I do not see how this bill encroaches upon the Presidential power. It provides only for the appointment of the Commission, which, it seems to me, naturally belongs to Congress, if Congress has any power over the subject at all, while it is not pretended that the President has anything to do with the counting of the electoral vote. If this is so, then this bill would seem to involve no usurpation of the Presidential power.

If, in response to your kind invitation, I am to give you my views “fully” on your prospective inaugural, you will permit me a few preliminary remarks. Owing to the peculiarity of your situation, if you are declared elected, your inaugural will be the most important one since Lincoln's first. The Commission deciding in your favor, your title will be generally recognized and respected. Every attempt to dispute it will be frowned down by the people. But the things which preceded your accession to power—the close election, the long and doubtful contest after it, the suspicious Louisiana affair—will for a time remain in the popular mind like a lingering cloud. They will also form part of the history of the country. To clear away that cloud and completely to reconcile the judgment of history, your Administration must be, as you certainly desire it to become, not only what would ordinarily be called a creditable one, it must be a strikingly good one, leaving a heritage of beneficent and lasting results behind it. In what direction you mean to make it such, you have wisely outlined in your letter of acceptance. The President who carries out the pledges of that letter will have one of the most glorious names in the annals of the United States; he will be revered as the