Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/208

182 to save himself, sees himself forced to overreach everybody else, the principles of honesty are easily forgotten. The sting of necessity stimulates unscrupulous greed, and the general example silences the voice of conscience. Honest labor appears as fruitless drudgery, and to live upon one's wits becomes the order of the day. The history of nations is full of pertinent warnings. American society can escape such a fate just as little as any other, if we flood this country with that kind of money which in its very nature carries the poison of false pretense and seduction.

My Democratic friends, we have seen in our days many startling cases of embezzlement, peculation and fraud. We have seen Credit Mobilier rings, whisky rings, mail-contract rings, Indian rings and what not. I have denounced these things no less earnestly than you. But I tell you, all these things will appear insignificant compared with the corruption and profligacy which must inevitably ensue when you put in operation a financial policy which, in order to “make and keep our irredeemable currency equal to the wants of trade,” will oblige the Government to spend money in streams for the very purpose of getting it out; for then reckless extravagance with all the wastefulness and corruption inseparable from it will no longer appear as a mere incident, it will become the systematic practice of your Government, the very basis of your scheme of finance.

Democrats, do you ask for the confidence of the people on the ground that you are enemies of corruption and friends of economical, honest and pure government? If so, then make haste to mark with the stigma of your condemnation those of your leaders who attempt to inveigle you into the approbation of a financial policy which by the force of necessity will make the Government more corrupt and profligate than ever.

I ventured to affirm that while the Democratic party