Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/417

Rh General Harlan of Kentucky is to be offered the Attorney-Generalship, and that Governor Morgan of New York is to have the Treasury. One of the reasons assigned for paying deference to Grant is that if he had supposed at any time before or since the election that Bristow was a possibility in the new Administration, he would have thrown the Presidency over to Tilden.” This rumor came in the way of private correspondence from Cincinnati to Chicago and is troubling the minds of some warm friends of yours at both places. The first part I am not able to look upon as a serious thing since you are undoubtedly as well aware as I am that Don Cameron's only political significance consists in being the son of his father; that among the political sets in Pennsylvania the Cameron set is one of the most unsavory, and that an official recognition of it by the selection from all the old Cabinet officers of just this one to pass into the new arrangement would at once seriously discredit the character of a reform Administration.

This recalls to my mind a reminiscence of one of Mr. Lincoln's great troubles. He had been made to believe that, owing to some things that had happened in connection with his Administration, a duty of gratitude obliged him to give Cabinet appointments to Mr. Caleb Smith of Indiana and to Mr. Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania. He did so and after some very mortifying experiences he found himself obliged to get rid again of Cameron, the best way he could. He once told me himself in speaking of this and other similar things, that a President must sometimes understand the duty to appear ungrateful and the wisdom of rejecting smart combinations with uncongenial elements.

As to Mr. Bristow you will pardon me for saying another word about him which is inspired not by any personal feeling, but entirely by considerations of public interest.