Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/509

Rh and submitted still more. It does not explain his unjustified removals and bad appointments when he says that he never pledged himself to reappoint Republicans—which pledge I think nobody ever accused him of making.

When he says that his pledge with regard to removals has been kept, he stands probably alone in saying so. I shall certainly give him credit for believing himself what he says; but in that case he indulges in a delusion decidedly dangerous not only to his success but to his good name. Moreover, he seems to overlook that it is of vastly more importance, practically, what others think of his fidelity to his pledges, than what he thinks of it himself.

His belief that Benton did not make the speeches imputed to him, shows only how easily he permits himself to be deceived by politicians who tell him what he likes to believe.

All this gives me little hope as to the forward steps he is “considering.” A Democratic friend of mine is going to Washington to-day to urge an extension of the civil service rules. I pray he may succeed, in the first place for the sake of reform itself, and then because something is absolutely needed to make the weak position into which the President has put himself, less conspicuous.

As to my personal relations with the President, I undertook the ungrateful rôle of the friend who utters disagreeable truths, because I thought nobody else would do so while it was most necessary. It was an act of self-sacrifice. If for this he “thinks hardly” of me, I am sorry, but not on my own account. I shall always be ready to explain how what I said was meant, but not to apologize for it. When Mr. Cleveland complains of my letters to others instead of answering them, he does not act wisely. If he has done things bad in appearance,