Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/325

Rh  &emsp; My dear Schurz: The canvass just ended has been so critical, and the part you have borne in it so honorable and important that I want to say so to you with a great deal of emphasis. Ever since I came to know you in the Senate my respect for your character and admiration for your abilities have grown apace. There has been a great deal to wound you in the malign assaults of those who cannot appreciate the true intent of your action; and, naturally, bitter resentment from those whose selfish and dangerous plans you have so boldly exposed and overthrown, so that a tribute of appreciative and grateful acknowledgment from a man who ardently loves this country and aspires to serve it worthily may not unpleasantly be mingled in your cup.

In his own measure and mode each of us has helped to guard the republican institutions from peril and degradation, and I trust your hands may be strengthened by official power to make the victory you have so powerfully assisted, fruitful of good results.

I know but little personally of the President-elect. Heaven grant that he may comprehend and fulfil the needs of the hour. 

 &emsp; I thank you most sincerely for your cordial letter of the 17th. I need not tell you how I value your good opinion. The approval and esteem of good, patriotic men is after all, next to the accomplishment of good ends, the best reward offered by public life. The attacks you mention which I had to endure in the late campaign were indeed cruel enough. Of course, I have seen a good deal of that sort of thing before; but it was a novel experience to be vilified most meanly and maliciously by a paper which