The Writings of Carl Schurz/To L. Q. C. Lamar, October 9th, 1886

by Carl Schurz and others

 

TO L. Q. C. LAMAR

175 West 58th St.,
New York, Oct. 9, 1886.

I thank you very much for your letter of the second. I fully agree with you in all you say of the President. I believe firmly in the sincerity of his professions and his integrity of purpose. I am sure that he wishes to redeem his pledges with the utmost strictness. I agree with you also that the lapses which have occurred were owing mainly to two things: the unscrupulous partisanship or incapacity of subordinates, and to the bad advice given by Members of Congress. But it should not be forgotten that whatever weight be attached to this circumstance, it does not ultimately relieve the President of his responsibility. As to the officers under him, he has the power to fill their places with men who, as to the conduct of the public service, are of the same way of thinking with him, or, if he cannot find a sufficient number of individuals so qualified, to keep those he has well disciplined by practically convincing them that they hold office only on condition of a strict observance of reform principles. And as to the bad advice given by Congressmen, the President is under no obligation whatever to follow it, and he has already had ample opportunity for learning that as to appointments and removals the recommendations of Congressmen are throughout the least trustworthy. His responsibility is, therefore, after all undivided, and it is not unnatural that ultimately, notwithstanding the integrity of his intentions, he should be blamed for all the things originally owing to the bad faith of subordinates or the bad advice of Congressmen. The public judgment, and to a great extent the practical good done by the Administration, will at last depend upon the energy with which subordinates have been kept under discipline and the interference of Congressmen with Executive duties has been resisted.

As an illustration I send you by this mail a pamphlet I received from Indianapolis a few days ago. It contains a report from Lucius B. Swift to the Civil Service Reform Association of Indiana. I know Mr. Swift well. He was in 1884 the head and front of the Independent movement which did so much to give Indiana to Cleveland. He wants no office. He is not a disappointed politician. He is not a notoriety hunter. You meet in him simply an unselfish and perfectly sincere man, very much in earnest.

You will admit, when you have read his report, that the picture he draws is a very sad one, and I must say that what I know of Mr. Swift's character and conscientiousness induces me to believe in its substantial correctness. It will, I have no doubt, be generally accepted as true.

Now, that in consequence of the bad faith or incapacity of subordinates, or of bad advice given by Congressmen, such a state of things should have grown up, may be explained in perfect consistency with the President's sincere intentions. But that consistency would become questionable if such a state of things were permitted to continue so after having once been revealed. And it is difficult to see how the trouble in Indiana can be remedied without a resort to pretty heroic measures. They will be unavoidable sometime, and they will have to be the more heroic, the longer they are delayed.

As I told you, I belong to a committee appointed by the National Civil Service Reform League to make a report upon the general condition of things. We have a local report from Maryland before us which is no more favorable than that from Indiana, and also one on the Indian service by Mr. Welsh. If I remember rightly, you said to me that some of the civil service reformers at Baltimore who had criticized the Maryland appointments were themselves prejudiced and perhaps not entirely unselfish partisans. I am not sufficiently acquainted with all of them; but several of them, and those the most pronounced, I know well, and I firmly believe them to be entirely disinterested and earnest friends of good government. And because I know them as such, I regret more keenly than I can express to see growing up among them suspicions as to the President's motives suspicions of the groundlessness of which I am convinced, but have not been able to persuade them in consequence of what they have observed in their own State.

I have suggested to my colleagues on the National League committee that before making a general report, some of them should go to Washington and have a talk with the President and some Department chiefs about the facts before us. We may have discovered some things which are new to the authorities at Washington, and they may present views calculated to put things into a new light. What do you think of this plan?

One suggestion permit me to submit to you now. You have trouble about the removal and appointment of clerks at Indian agencies. The best thing to be done, in my opinion, would be to make clerks of the same grade of pay in the Indian Office at Washington and at the Indian agencies interchangeable. This would bring the agency clerks under the civil service law, and in the course of time, when a number of clerks have been inter-exchanged, give the agencies the benefit of approved business methods and the Indian Office the benefit of the experience gathered by clerks at the agencies. To effect this, legislation would be necessary; but a recommendation in your report followed up with some further pressure would be likely to bring it, and produce at once a very good effect by opening a new prospect of reform.

While I am writing I receive a letter from St. Louis informing me that the new collector of customs there, Mr. Lancaster, is doing the same things which are disgracing the Indianapolis post-office, especially worrying resignations out of good clerks whom he can find no reason for removing. There is much sensitiveness in Missouri about the efforts made to replace the few Union soldiers still in the Federal service there, with Confederates. There are, as I am informed, two left in the marine office of the customhouse, who are to be got rid of now. One of them, Captain Schuster, through a friend, asks me whether I think him justified in declining to resign if requested to do so without any reason. My answer will be in the affirmative. I am not acquainted at present with any of the ruling spirits in the Treasury, or I should directly bring the matter to their attention. Will you, perhaps, be kind enough to mention the subject to them as soon as possible? They may possibly prevent a scandal there. How magnificently did the President correct the mistake made by the appointment of Hedden! That is the kind of medicine needed.

Now, my dear Mr. Lamar, you know where I live and where, whenever you visit this neighborhood, you will always be heartily welcome. Let me hope to see you soon again.