Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/488

454 appointments and removals the recommendations of Congressmen are throughout the least trustworthy. His responsibility is, therefore, after all undivided, and it is not unnatural that ultimately, notwithstanding the integrity of his intentions, he should be blamed for all the things originally owing to the bad faith of subordinates or the bad advice of Congressmen. The public judgment, and to a great extent the practical good done by the Administration, will at last depend upon the energy with which subordinates have been kept under discipline and the interference of Congressmen with Executive duties has been resisted.

As an illustration I send you by this mail a pamphlet I received from Indianapolis a few days ago. It contains a report from Lucius B. Swift to the Civil Service Reform Association of Indiana. I know Mr. Swift well. He was in 1884 the head and front of the Independent movement which did so much to give Indiana to Cleveland. He wants no office. He is not a disappointed politician. He is not a notoriety hunter. You meet in him simply an unselfish and perfectly sincere man, very much in earnest.

You will admit, when you have read his report, that the picture he draws is a very sad one, and I must say that what I know of Mr. Swift's character and conscientiousness induces me to believe in its substantial correctness. It will, I have no doubt, be generally accepted as true.

Now, that in consequence of the bad faith or incapacity of subordinates, or of bad advice given by Congressmen, such a state of things should have grown up, may be explained in perfect consistency with the President's sincere intentions. But that consistency would become questionable if such a state of things were permitted to continue so after having once been revealed. And it is difficult to see how the trouble in Indiana can be remedied