Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/547

Rh among Republican politicians. It is equally certain that a Republican victory now would be followed by a “clean sweep,” with all that the term implies, involving not only all Democratic officeholders, good and bad, outside of the classified service, but the Republicans left in office by President Cleveland, too, as Republicans who consented to remain in place under a Democratic Administration are especially hateful to Republican politicians.

Is it reasonable to expect that Mr. Harrison, if elected, would oppose such a “clean sweep” with greater courage and firmness than was shown by Mr. Cleveland? Mr. Harrison is, in point of personal character, no doubt vastly preferable to Mr. Blaine. But neither his professions nor his antecedents stamp him as a man who would resist the demands of the influential politicians of his party. He would on the contrary, to the extent of his power, meet them, as he asked his demands to be met under a previous Republican Administration. The cause of civil service reform would, therefore, have to hope rather less from Mr. Harrison than from Mr. Cleveland.

But, if I rightly understand the attitude of the Republican party, it is really Mr. Blaine, not Mr. Harrison, whom we are invited to put into power. Mr. Blaine is vociferously proclaimed, not only as the “greatest statesman,” as the “real leader of the Republican party,” but also as the “Premier,” the “head of the Republican Administration” that is to be. That Mr. Harrison's Administration shall be under Mr. Blame's control seems to be taken for granted, without any conspicuous dissent. Mr. Harrison is so pointedly consigned to the role of second man that his position as a candidate appears grotesque in the extreme. It is an entirely new thing in our Constitutional history that one person is to be elected President of the United States for the very purpose