Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/253

Rh rash or ill-considered proceedings. You have not been consulted about the movements now in preparation simply because it is best—and I am sure it appears so to you as it does to me—that you should have no personal connection with anything of the kind. I had to-day a long conversation with a prominent member of the Union League of this city, Judge [James] Emott, and there is some hope that we may find a mode of coöperating with the friends of reform in that association.

There can be no harm, however, in my stating to you my own individual view of the exigencies of our present situation, and I have good reason to think that it is shared by many good citizens. While after the great domestic sorrow that has befallen me it would be more in accordance with my feelings to abstain from all participation in public affairs, yet I shall obey the call of duty. I should be happy to coöperate with my old Republican friends in the impending canvass, and ardently desire that this be made consistent with my convictions. Now, we have been so deeply disgraced in the estimation of mankind by the exposures of corruption in our public service, and the faith of many of our people in our institutions has been so dangerously shaken, that the selection of men universally known to be of our very best, for the highest offices of the Republic, is the most imperative duty of these times. The country cannot afford anything else. Submission to a mere choice of evils, or the election of men who would be likely to be mere tools in the hands of greedy party managers, would only deepen the disgrace of the American people; and if the political parties present to us nothing else, then I shall deem it my duty to my country to be one of those, however large or small their number, who will take an appeal from the existing organizations and put forward candidates such as ought to be presented to the people at a time like this. The main value the