Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/394

360 But I pour myself out to you in the confidence of friendship. Your opportunities and responsibilities are great. See to it that you do not start in an unseaworthy bottom. 



&emsp; My dear Mr. President: Pardon me for asking the favor of a moment's attention. When I had the honor of an interview with you at Albany, I received, from what you said to me, the impression that you were strongly inclined to reappoint Mr. Pearson. The question you asked me whether it was proper and customary to renominate such an officer before the expiration of his term, suggested the inference that the reappointment of Mr. Pearson would be one of your first official acts. What I heard from your more confidential friends strengthened that impression and inference as to your intentions. Reports received from Washington, and still more the circumstance that Mr. Pearson's term has been permitted to expire without his reappointment, have created an apprehension that the matter is in doubt.

My name does not appear upon a single petition or recommendation for any appointment in your gift. I believe most, if not all, of the Independents who took an active part in the late campaign have followed the same line of conduct. If I, in accord with them, now say a word to you in behalf of the reappointment of Postmaster Pearson, it is not on account of any personal interest in him—for he is a stranger to me—but because his case is a representative, not an individual, one. We speak not for a person but for a public cause.

As you have permitted me to believe, it is your opinion