We had much to gain, you have much to lose. That is what I mean in saying that you labor under a certain disadvantage.
Upon the success of your Administration will depend the future of the Republican party as well as your own. The two are in a certain sense identical. If you succeed, you should be and will be renominated. If you fail, the Republican party will succumb to the opposition in 1884. Any lowering of the present standard will be looked upon as a failure.
Your success in the best sense of the word will depend upon your management of the public business, not upon the management of party politics, or, at least, upon the latter only in a very small degree. It is now generally recognized that the Republican party in the last campaign was greatly strengthened by the character and success of the present Administration. Indeed, without these things victory would have been impossible. The success of the present Administration was owing exclusively to the conduct of the public business, for political management there was none. If wise political management can go hand in hand with a good conduct of the public business so much the better. But the latter should never be subordinated to the former. The idea that the former can make up for failures in the latter, will prove a disastrous delusion.
You want, therefore, in the first place, a good business Cabinet upon whose intelligence, integrity and energy you can depend. It is desirable that the party be kept harmonious if that is possible, and that to this end the different elements composing the Republican party be properly respected. But it is of infinitely greater importance that every member of your Cabinet give you, by his character and ability, the greatest possible assurance that in his hands the public interests committed to his
