THE REMINISCENCES OF CARL SCHURZ
him—this time, no doubt, induced by the extraordinary harassment to which he was subjected from all sides.[1]
| Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 24, 1862. |
General Carl Schurz:
My Dear Sir—I have just received and read your letter of the 20th.
The purport of it is that we lost the late elections, and the Administration
is failing, because the war is unsuccessful, and that I must not flatter myself
that I am not justly to blame for it. I certainly know that if the war fails,
the Administration fails, and that I will be blamed for it, whether I deserve
it or not. And I ought to be blamed if I could do better. You think I
could do better; therefore you blame me already. I think I could not do
better; therefore I blame you for blaming me. I understand you now to be
willing to accept the help of men who are not Republicans, provided they
have “heart in it.” Agreed. I want no others. But who is to be the judge
of hearts, or of “heart in it”? If I must discard my own judgment, and
take yours, I must also take that of others; and by the time I should reject
all I should be advised to reject, I should have none left, Republicans or
others—not even yourself. For be assured, my dear Sir, there are men who
have “heart in it” and think you are performing your part as poorly as
you think I am performing mine. I certainly have been dissatisfied with
the slowness of Buell and McClellan; but before I relieved them I had
great fears I should not find successors to them who would do better; and I
am sorry to add that I have seen little since to relieve those fears. I do not
clearly see the prospect of any more rapid movements. I fear we shall at
last find out that the difficulty is in our case rather than in particular
generals. I wish to disparage no one—certainly not those who sympathize
with me; but I must say I need success more than I need sympathy, and
that I have not seen the so much greater evidence of getting success from
my sympathizers than from those who are denounced as the contrary. It
does seem to me that in the field the two classes have been very much alike
in what they have done and what they have failed to do. In sealing their
faith with their blood, Baker, and Lyon, and Bohlen, and Richardson,
Republicans, did all that men could do; but did they any more than Kearney,
and Stevens, and Reno, and Mansfield, none of whom were Republicans, and
some at least of whom have been bitterly and repeatedly denounced to me
as secession sympathizers? I will not perform the ungrateful task of com-
- ↑ The letter, while not incorporated in the Reminiscences by Mr. Schurz, is added here for the convenience of readers who have not read it elsewhere.
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