seems to me, is a consideration of an importance infinitely greater than any inconvenience that might arise from publicity.
FROM GEORGE F. EDMUNDS
| Senate Chamber, | |
| Washington, March 23, 1886. |
I have yours of the 18th. I am so much pressed for time that I cannot go into a discussion of the distinctions that I think exist in respect of the subjects you mention. The real truth is, as I believe upon a wide variety of evidence, that the President did not find himself able to hold up to his professions when he has been set upon by the whole body of Democratic Senators and Members of Congress and the rest of the Democratic party in the country—nine-tenths of whom believe, as you doubtless know, that offices are the stakes for which political parties play and are the spoils of victory. The official letter of the Postmaster-General inviting accusations and complaints as necessary, and stating that they would be sufficient and stating that he had consulted the President, would seem to show this conclusively to any mind that was not determined to be blind.
TO GEORGE F. EDMUNDS
I do not wish to take your time with a lengthy correspondence but beg leave to make one observation in reply to your letter just received, without expecting any answer.
If the President, yielding to party pressure, has broken his pledges, a matter about which a great many people, of whom I am one, desire to be clearly advised, the Senate has it in its power to prove that fact without the “papers” asked for. The Senate can refer case after case for
