Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/417

Rh so, then indeed we should have to despair of the capacity of man to govern himself. But I pronounce it a foul and atrocious calumny. Never was a more wanton, a deadlier insult thrown into the face of a high-minded and patriotic people. And every honest American heel should lift itself to kick the vile slanderer into the sea!

Yes, there are indeed some men among us, fortunately a small minority, who will take an interest in public affairs only for personal reward, and are patriots for revenue only. It would be much better for our public morals, as well as for the dignity and welfare of the American people, if those mercenary bands ceased to take their interest in our public affairs, and to disgust and crowd out and to rule better citizens than themselves. But I appeal to your instinct as a patriot, sir, should we feed that greed, should we gratify and stimulate that mercenary spirit by legislation like this?

For such reasons, Governor, we appear here to pray that you may refuse your signature to this bill. A few days after the fall of Richmond, in 1865, Abraham Lincoln pointed out to a friend the usual crowd of officehunters and their backers besieging his door, and he said: “Look at this. Now we have overcome the rebellion, but here you see something that may become more dangerous to this Republic than the rebellion itself.” Had he lived, he would perhaps himself have led in the effort to avert a danger which his great mind so clearly foresaw. But that task has dropped upon the shoulders of another generation—the task of destroying the spoils system, which, according to Lincoln's utterance, appeared to him no less important than the task of destroying the slave-power, and which has proved hardly less difficult. But it is certainly no less hopeful.

With the faithful, and unremitting effort the opponents of the spoils system succeeded in the enactment of laws