feel impelled to admit the fact. Of course, charges will always be made by unscrupulous politicians; but they will be harmless unless founded on truth. If, however, there should be many and important charges founded on truth, they might produce a reaction in public sentiment, all the greater as they would create the impression that the Administration was not what it pretended to be—a matter on which the American mind is very sensitive.
But the President can avoid all this by simply following the true impulses of his nature and by discarding the counsels of small political cunning. Thus he will win and maintain a grand and unconquerable position.
TO L. Q. C. LAMAR[1]
Your kind letter of the 24th reached me yesterday. I thank you very much for having made General Kryzanowski's case “special.” His physicians apprehend that he will not survive the coming winter.
When I congratulated you upon the restoration of Duddenhausen to his place, as an act of justice, I believed that his official conduct had been entirely blameless. I understood it to be so at the time of his suspension. Had I had any reason to think otherwise, I should never have said a word about his case. And I wish to assure you now that if any wrong is discovered with regard to him, I shall be glad to hear that he is treated according to his deserts, and call that an act of justice too.
Let me add that with regard to these things I have much more the character of the Administration at heart than the personal interests of the individuals concerned. It simply so happened that the Duddenhausen and Salomon
- ↑ Secretary of the Interior.
