Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/274

254 The debate on Sumner's San Domingo resolutions will certainly not remain without effect and, taking it altogether, we have good reason to hope that in a few months the track will be tolerably clear for the Liberals. In the meantime such organizations inside of the Republican party as we started in Missouri and as have now been established in Ohio under the leadership of ex-Secretary Cox, ought to be encouraged by the independent press. I expect to see similar things spring up in other States, and when the preliminary movements of the next Presidential election come on, such organizations may be strong enough to represent a formidable balance of power. In this manner, I think, much can be accomplished for civil service reform, revenue-reform and other good things, and we may be able to hold the patronage-politicians and corruptionists at bay.

I have given you now, as well as I can in a hurried way, the general drift of my ideas about the present situation of affairs, and I should be very happy to have your thoughts on the same subject.

I was glad to see the Nation strike so vigorously at the insane Ku-Klux legislation now under discussion in Congress. I hope we shall be able to defeat, if not the whole, at least the worst features of it.

I sent you my speech on the Sumner resolutions, and I think the tendency of some of the points it contains may appear clearer to you in the light of this note. 



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I was delighted when I read of the association you have formed. It is just the thing to be done under existing circumstances. That the platform you adopted, and