Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/383

Rh to this arrangement. I believe in you as a pure and honest man. But the managers of this case did not act as you would have acted. The impression was circulated among my friends that I favored the bargain, and even now I find myself accused in some newspapers of having been a party to it. This is one of those cases in which appearances are almost, if not wholly, as bad as facts. And nobody can read the proceedings of the Convention in the light of surrounding circumstances without concluding that, on its very face, the first fruit of the great reform, so hopefully begun, was a successful piece of political huckstering and that the whole movement had been captured by politicians of the old stamp.

A compromise on the revenue question might have been carried out without giving great offense. It seemed even demanded by higher considerations. But the appearance of political trickery could not fail to shake the whole moral basis of the movement.

That this should be extremely painful to me, having worked in good faith not for mere temporary success but for higher aims, you can readily understand. But, while my personal feelings may be of little moment, the consequences of all this are more serious. It may be said that such things* are forgotten after the first three days of a campaign. It will hardly be so in this case, for the whole character and aspect of the movement is changed.

Of the three elements which met for coöperation at Cincinnati, the one which had least to do with originating the movement and which came in after it had grown to be formidable and promising, seemed to have shaped, by the usual appliances of the political trade, all the practical results so far obtained. The reform movement has furnished another illustration of the demoralization of our political life, and as such it stands there to-day. Its