Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/520

486 demanded by certain newspapers which are either not the organs of the Democratic party or are distinctly opposed to its principles.” Well, what of it? Do you mean to say that the advocacy of Mr. Nicoll by newspapers not the organs of the Democratic party would make him less efficient in the prosecution of evil-doers, a less valuable district attorney to the city of New York? I remember when Abram S. Hewitt was a candidate for mayor, newspapers “not the organs of the Democratic party” advocated his election. Did he repel them? Did he think it for himself a disqualification for the office?

Indeed, you say that one of the newspapers spoke in a dictatorial tone. What of that? Would that have diminished Mr. Nicoll's qualifications for the place? Would it have lessened the importance of the prosecutions by a man of his proven trustworthiness? Let me ask you, instead of indulging in feverish imaginings about “newspaper bosses” and “brooding Buddhas,” to look the facts calmly in the face. It was not one newspaper that at first expressed the demand for Mr. Nicoll's nomination. It was almost the whole press of this city; it was the Herald, the Sun, the World, the Times, the Tribune, the Staats-Zeitung, the Evening Post, the Commercial Advertiser, the Mail and Express, Harper's Weekly, the Independent and others. And why did these newspapers, in almost unbroken chorus, agree in that demand? Not because they wanted to start a popular current, but because they moved in it. They did not create public sentiment, but they simply obeyed it. They only gave voice and expression to a demand which embodied the best impulses of our people and did honor to the community—the demand for justice and good government. Will you make us believe that, as “self-respecting men,” you and your friends among the leaders of the Democratic party could not have yielded to that de-