Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/281

Rh some attempt at corrupt practices, more or less, as there will always be some highway robbery. But the extent of those corrupt practices, the more or less, and, therefore, the damage and danger arising from them, will depend upon the popular maintenance of that moral standard according to which corruption is branded as a dishonorable thing, condemned as a crime and treated as such. As long as it is branded and condemned you can fight and repress it with effect. But I ask you in all candor and entreat you to consider it well: what will the effect be if corruption not only ceases to be branded with dishonor, but if men tainted with it are held up, not merely by some individuals, but by the people, as men to be admired and honored, as models for the emulation of the ambitious? There will, I admit, always be some highway robbery. But there will not be very much as long as highway robbers are treated as criminals and sent to prison. But what would become of society if highway robbers were honored as model citizens and made presidents of trust companies?

And this, just this, fatal leap the American people are asked to take in this Presidential election. Consider it well. It is success that attracts the eager eye of the young. Public honors mean the popular approval of public conduct, and the public conduct of him who receives them is set up by the people as a model for the ambitious to follow. The more powerful that model, the higher the pedestal on which it stands. The Presidency of the United States is the highest. What will the model teach in this case, and what kind of ambition will it excite? How will it work to teach our young by this example of popular approval that in order to win the highest honors of the Republic it is no longer necessary to be officially honest? What will the effect be upon our aspiring politicians if they are told by the American