Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/387

Rh I should not be troubled by any difficulties in the way, did I still see and feel the same moral force as before, by which to combat and overcome them. But all is changed. That element which was least inspired with the great and noble tendencies of this movement stands before the people as its controlling power, and that element cannot conduct a campaign like this successfully. The question is whether, as the matter now stands, those elements which in a moral sense formed the backbone of the movement, can [be] brought into the foreground again, so as to inspire confidence. I doubt it. To restore impaired confidence is difficult. I thought it my duty to tell you all this, just as I see and feel it. Believe me, I have not painted in dark colors, perhaps to give myself in your eyes a certain sort of importance. That is not one of the weaknesses I possess. I give you my real thoughts and feelings, frankly and honestly, without exaggeration. I have always honored and admired you and shall, I trust, always be your sincere personal friend, whether you regard me so or not. To tell you things which must be unpleasant to you, is a very painful task to me, but they must be told now, before we go further in this business. I assure you, I did not go to Cincinnati to have anybody in particular nominated, and therefore I do not mourn over the defeat of a favorite. I did not advise your nomination, because I foresaw certain difficulties. But these difficulties have been rendered immeasurably more grave by the manner in which your nomination was brought about. My whole heart was and is in the cause I have so laboriously worked for, and it is with a grief, which I cannot express, that I see a movement so hopefully begun, so noble and so promising, dragged down to the level of an ordinary political operation and stripped of its moral power.

How much of it can be saved, I do not know yet.