Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/298

272 myself, it is known to you that I never, like certain other independents, placed the name of Tilden beside that of Bristow that I might recommend the candidacy of the former in case the latter should not be nominated. While I acknowledge the excellence of some of Mr. Tilden's actions, I, notwithstanding, could never, even in the most favorable moments, feel quite easy and comfortable in respect to the reform mission of a man who had grown old in the peculiar school of New York politicians, and who had developed himself into a most perfect master of the political machine before he began his reform work. And I could not refuse to listen to the opinion of other persons whose fairness I could not doubt, and who had known Mr. Tilden longer and better than I—shall I say whose opinion in the matter was of especial weight with me? It was your own. This would seem like an unbecoming allusion to private conversation if you had not yourself given up to public possession your judgment of Mr. Tilden. Whoever read your paper last winter and spring had the opportunity of seeing Mr. Tilden, when occasion offered, very forcibly unmasked as “a demagogue and a grasper after popularity,” as a man unworthy of confidence, and an unsuitable candidate for the Presidency. You even found fault with that part of his annual message which had reference to the financial question, as a “suspicious step backward,” adopted as a means of opening a bargain with Western inflationists in the National Convention for the advancement of private aims. You strongly suspected even the business honesty of Mr. Tilden, for you found so unsubstantial his published defense of the complaints of embezzlement of large sums in railroad bonds that you felt obliged to express your doubts about it in the Staats-Zeitung. To be just to you I ought to add that your opinions of Mr. Tilden spoken in private agreed perfectly