Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/318

284 against the personal honesty of Mr. Blaine is not worth saying.” There are many more facts in Mr. Blaine's record which just begin to form the subject of popular discussion, and which may in a most urgent manner call for your attention before the end of this campaign. I confined myself carefully to a few representative points which rested upon Mr. Blaine's own letters, speeches and oral testimony alone. Neither can I accept the compliment that my Brooklyn speech is an unusual exhibition of “clear and skillful statement.” Whatever strength that speech possesses consists simply in the circumstance that it is the sober truth, plainly spoken. And just there is your trouble. 

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I can say only a few words in reply to your kind letter, as I am very much occupied, being on the point of leaving for a long Western trip.

1. The letters of June 29th and October 4th do actually belong together. They treat of the same subject. The letters of October 4th are only the upshot of Mr. Blaine's impatience at Caldwell's long hesitancy. He wanted to stir him up by putting before him a strong inducement for joining interests with him. This seems to me perfectly clear. No other explanation has, as far as I have heard, the least ground to stand upon.

2. As to Mr. Blaine's statements to the House, he wanted to make the House and the country believe that his having an interest in the Little Rock road was not improper, because the interests of the road did not in any way depend upon Congressional action, and, secondly, that he had not been in any sense favored by the Little