Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/392

358 Independents were loud and gushing. We declined all reward. We wanted only a Government we could confide in. But now I may say that, as to the arrangement of the Administration, everything we especially recommended in that respect was refused, and everything we especially objected to, was done. And surely those recommendations as well as objections were in the highest degree unselfish, modest and reasonable.

If the Cabinet is formed as intended, a majority of the rank and file of the Independents, disappointed and distrustful, will, I apprehend, quietly find their way back to their old associations. Those of the leaders who are, as journalists, obliged to speak, will also be obliged to criticise severely, if they want to keep the confidence of their readers. I, for my part, unwilling to denounce and unable to defend, shall lapse into silence, consider myself discredited with my constituency, dismissed from the political field and relegated to private pursuits. Is it not a singular fate? My coöperation with Democrats for good ends leaves me strange experiences. When I had to bolt from my party in Missouri for the purpose of restoring the ballot to the disfranchised “rebel sympathizers,” I was first praised by them to the skies, and then they used those very ballots to drive me out of the Senate and to put one of their own men in my seat. And now when I have exposed myself to the bitterest hatred and vindictiveness of the party from which I received all my public honors, for the purpose of inaugurating an era of reform and high-minded politics, I find myself, by the very first act of those so put into power, discredited, if not made ridiculous, in the eyes of those who followed my lead, and virtually driven from the field of political activity and influence.

Do not misunderstand me. This is no case of personal grievance. I have none. I want nothing. The Administration could offer me nothing that would have the least