Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/165

Rh Anything that works in the direction of a clean sweep, whether rapid or slow, under your Administration, is a very serious disappointment. As your sincere friend I am in duty bound to tell you this. It is not the impatience of the reformer that speaks out of me, but calm and candid observation when I say that there is a very general disgust with the old nuisance, and an equally general feeling that the time for abolishing it and for putting a decent and civilized system in its place has now come. If this feeling is crossed, you may be sure that as the bulletins from the General Post-Office come day after day, you will never hear the last of it. The public mind is now fixed upon this point, and you must not be surprised if your action with regard to just this matter is taken as the measure of your practical fidelity to the principles you possess. If you turned the patronage of New York State to Murphy, Hill and Sheehan, the sensation would be more painful than that created by the continuance of old abuses in the post-office although, in a less degree. I think I am not going too far in predicting, that a clean sweep, or anything approaching it, would sufficiently discredit your Administration to defeat the Democratic party in 1896.

As an ardent friend of tariff-[reform] and currency-reform I need not be told that civil service reform is not the only concern of your Administration. But it is certainly not the least important one. On the contrary, you have a chance of doing the country a more lasting service and of gaining greater renown on this field than on any other. Moreover, it is my honest opinion that by such a measure of civil service reform you will immensely strengthen yourself in carrying the reform of the tariff and of the currency, for you will have the most potent opinion of the country more strongly on your side and wield a much greater moral authority over Congress.