Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/252

218 commit an impulsive indiscretion with impunity. But if he brings upon himself the suspicion, however unjust it may be, of stifling on an important occasion his best impulses for the purpose of getting quickly into place, the taint will stick to him as long as the companions of his young days live. He may never get rid of it. To avert it is worth a sacrifice.

I know I have sometimes spoken to you approvingly of your efforts to identify yourself with the “regular organization” and thus to make your way up. I should not object to unimportant concessions of points of policy to that end. But there is a moral limit to those concessions, and in this case I am strongly convinced that this limit is reached.

Will you pardon my frankness in saying all this to you? I should not have ventured to do it, in fact I should not have taken the trouble of doing it, were not my feelings for you warm and sincere. This being so, I should have reproached myself with an unperformed duty had I not made this attempt to warn you of what I conceive to be a great danger to your future career. It is certainly not too late to turn back. If you do it, do it promptly, straightforwardly and boldly.

I do not want to think of our speaking on different sides when I go to Massachusetts in this campaign.

Believe me, sincerely your friend, &emsp; 



&emsp; Dear Mr. Schurz: I received your kind letter this evening. It touched and gratified me very deeply as a mark of interest which you would not have shown unless you had felt a most sincere friendship for me. I am very much indebted to you for