Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/120

86 still stronger when the Republican party has been twenty-four years in power, and it may become overwhelming if the conduct of the Government during the next four years presents vulnerable points or the Republican party renders itself in any way obnoxious to independent opinion. The Republican party will more than ever need the support of the independent element in order to maintain itself in power four years hence, and it can keep that support only by deserving it. That support will certainly be forfeited by any connivance with present and any relapse into old abuses.

One of the greatest dangers to the ascendancy of the Republican party consists in the evils of boss-rule. Look at New York to-day. Whatever some editors may say, there is no doubt that Mr. Platt's nomination for the Senate was dictated by Mr. Conkling, and if there were an election in that State to-morrow it is more than probable that an overwhelming majority of the independent vote would go against the Republicans. At least I am so advised by persons who may be presumed to be well informed. In Pennsylvania there is an actual revolt. In regard to this matter your Administration will find itself in the same situation in which the present has been during the last four years. It will have to attract and keep attached to the party the elements which local politics are calculated to repel. It will have to do this by conducting the affairs of the Government in an irreproachable and generally acceptable manner, and also by keeping itself in living contact with the independent element. You will find it necessary to have somebody in your Cabinet who in this respect can do what I did during these four years: maintain active correspondence with those elements, explain to them things liable to be misunderstood, communicate their views and wishes to the head of the Government and so on. He should be a man