Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/419

Rh his appointment will furnish you a most faithful and serviceable instrument for the execution of your good purposes. This object is, after all, the main thing to be kept in view, and it cannot, as it seems to me, be reached by appointing one of Bristow's personal friends to some other place, for the question is not how Bristow can be personally satisfied, which is an unimportant matter compared with the other question, how the success of your Administration can be best secured and the public interest best served.

You might, indeed, attain the same end if you could put a man into the Treasury, who has the cause of honest government and reform just as sincerely and strongly at heart, who represents the same principles of official conduct, enjoys the same popular confidence and possesses the same qualifications as Bristow. Then nothing would be lost. But is it an easy thing to find an adequate substitute? I take the liberty of guessing that you do not seriously think of Governor Morgan, who, however honest and deserving, is now an old man with a remnant of vigor too small for the arduous duties of the Treasury Department, the management of which requires a high degree of working capacity. I have seen several other names mentioned in the papers as being “on the slate,” and of course I do not know what your intentions may be. But with real anxiety I beg you to consider that, as your reform program is to be carried out, the most important and difficult task will fall upon the Treasury and Post-Office Departments with their immense machinery and responsibilities; that just there you will want to have men whose hearts are faithfully in that cause; who truly believe in it; upon whom you can absolutely depend that they have the necessary spirit and perseverance to effect that deliverance of the civil service from Congressional control which you so justly regard as the essential point of reform; and