Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/322

288 expressed are not only my own, but, I am confident, those of the American people generally. 

 &emsp; My dear Sir: I put off my congratulations until all uncertainty was over, but I need scarcely assure you that they are none the less sincere and cordial. I congratulate you not only on your personal success, but on the great opportunities before you to render the country services of inestimable value. You will have it largely in your power to relieve the people of the morbid apprehensions that the passage of the Government from one party to another involves all the perilous chances of a great revolution. You can lift party politics up to a higher plane by striking the decisive blow at the spoils system. You can extend and perpetuate the reform of the civil service. You can thus bring about a state of things in which public questions can once more be discussed on their own merits. By all this you can inspire the American people with greater confidence in their institutions and in their future than they have felt for a long time. And it cannot but be flattering to you to know that there are a great many people who believe not only that you can, but that you will do these things.

In order to accomplish them you will no doubt have to go through very hard struggles with that element whose first impulse after a victory is to reach for the spoils. I know how hard such a struggle is, for I have witnessed some of it myself. The onset on you will probably be fiercer than any we have seen in our generation. The character, and consequently the fate, of your Administration is not unlikely to be determined at the start, within