Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/420

396 most conscientiously whether the scheme involved in this bill was really the best that my ability could devise to carry out the true intent of that constitution which I had taken a sacred oath to support. I would most scrupulously avoid doing or sanctioning anything that might prejudice or obstruct those among my people that are poor and lowly and without power and influence, in enjoying their full right to public position according to their merit, on a footing of perfect equality with others more favored. And as I valued the good name I wished to leave as an inheritance to my children, I would never, never put that name under a bill so full of mischief and indignity as this. 

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My dear Mr. President: Mr. McAneny, the secretary of the Civil Service Reform League, will present to you a memorial from a committee of that body which speaks for itself. The permission you kindly gave me at our very pleasant interview here to write to you whenever I thought I had anything pertinent to say, encourages me to add a few words.

The triumph of the Republican party at the last election seems to have had the effect of exciting in its spoils politicians the hope of upsetting what has been gained for the cause of civil service reform by a hard struggle of many years. This fact in itself cannot but be in the highest degree mortifying and humiliating to every conscientious Republican who remembers the solemn pledges of the platform of his party. You are no doubt aware of what has happened in this State. You will, I am sure, not think it unnatural that the class of citizens to which I belong should find it hard to see the victory to which they