The Writings of Carl Schurz/To President Cleveland, June 28th, 1885
TO PRESIDENT CLEVELAND
I am obliged to encroach upon your time again. The writer of the enclosed letters, Mr. Wm. Means, was mayor of Cincinnati a few years ago, a Democratic “Reform Mayor,” and is, I believe, a gentleman of good standing in that community. I made his acquaintance last year when I was speaking in Ohio and went through the singular experience of finding myself vilified more atrociously than I had ever been vilified before, at the rate of about three columns a day, by the paper pretending to be in that State the principal organ of the party whose Presidential candidate I was working for. This circumstance led Mr. Means to speak to me; and thus to introduce himself at that time.
I said to him in reply to his first letter that I was not in the habit of writing to you about individual candidates for office, but that, if he desired it, I would communicate his letter to you, and that I was sure you would be glad to get in such cases the best information that could be had. He authorized me to send you his letter, and I now do so. Of the persons mentioned by him I know nothing.
Let me mention also, by the way, that I have a letter from a friend in Cleveland who informs me that the newly appointed collector of internal revenue there, John Farley, loudly proclaims that civil service reform is nonsense, and that he is going to remove all the employees connected with his office, some of whom have been very efficient, and one of the best of whom was on your side in the last election. I mention this for what it may be worth for the purpose of suggesting that it might be well to caution the new appointees in this respect. Some of them may be apt to do considerable mischief and to create much ill feeling and prejudice against the Administration by such proceedings.
I cannot tell you how glad of every occasion I am to congratulate you on a success, and how loath to find fault. But my devotion to our common cause, as well as my personal feeling for you, makes it a duty to say something to you about your customhouse appointments. The appointment of Burt is the ideal one, provided there is sufficient reason for the removal of Graham. If there is not, the Senate will be likely to reject Burt. But as to Mr. Hedden,[1] I fear you will have made a grave mistake. Whatever recommendations may have been procured from business men, it is universally believed that Mr. Hedden would never have been thought of as a candidate, had not Mr. Hubert O. Thompson “invented” him. Nobody would assume that Mr. Thompson put him for ward for the purpose of reforming the public service. There is a feeling in the community that the Administration might stand in a better light, in some respects at least, had it appointed Mr. Thompson himself instead of putting him in power under a very thin disguise. This is what I have heard said a dozen times by very respectable men. I enclose an article from yesterday's Times. It is substantially what I have no doubt a large majority of our people think, although they may express themselves more mildly as the Evening Post does. You will also notice the Mephistophelian grin of the Sun. As to my own feelings I must confess this appointment revives my first misgivings that New York politics may become the rock upon which your Administration will wreck itself; that right there will always be the source of advice dangerous to your good name and to success in the accomplishment of your best purposes; that this appointment was obtained from you to put the customhouse under the control of a political machine; that it will be so used without your knowing it, and that you will become aware of the true state of things when it is too late to prevent the mischief. Pardon my frankness. I feel very anxious about this thing.