Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/521

Rh mand because among the newspapers expressing it there was one you did not like? Let us see where that kind of “self-respect” has carried you.

I know that we cannot expect our candidates for office to be perfect angels. I am not in favor of criticizing the private conduct of candidates for office, unless it is absolutely necessary. But it becomes absolutely necessary when that private conduct reveals faults of character which would render the candidate unfit for the office to which he aspires. Mr. Fellows is an eloquent man, and, I suppose, a pleasant companion. He may possess other estimable qualities; he may be good yet for many things in this world. But recent revelations have served to illustrate some of his weaknesses, which, in fact, have long been known, and which make him especially unfit for the duties of a public prosecutor. He stands self-confessed as having, after losing a considerable sum of money which he did not possess, in gambling, paid his gambling debt with a note, the payment of which he sought to avoid by pleading in court the law against gambling. He stands self-confessed as having solicited a pecuniary favor from William M. Tweed, the champion public robber and corruptionist of this land—and that immediately after he (Fellows) had left the employment of the prosecuting attorney of this county, and after Tweed's unexampled misdeeds had become clearly known to him.

In private life you would, as a “self-respecting” man, probably leave any one guilty of these things to the society of his boon companions, to the mercy of his creditors and, perhaps, to the attention of the police. As a “self-respecting” business man, who wishes to preserve the good repute of his firm, you would hardly make him your partner or manager, or recommend him to your neighbors for confidential employment. Can you, then, as a