Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/104

80 series of general elections, the stake in which consists in scores upon scores of millions of gain for a strong money power, without becoming utterly demoralized and corrupted in their political life. It is high time that every American who loves his country should open his eyes to this incontestable truth. Here, indeed, is the greatest evil brought upon us by our high-tariff policy; and nothing can cure it but the removal of that stake from our elections.

I certainly do not underestimate the importance of the tariff in its economic working. But with us the tariff question has ceased to be only a question of economics. It has become a question touching the character of the American people, and the very vitality of our free institutions. Let us hope that the American people will know how to restore the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule to their places in our political contests, and that they will prove the purification of their politics to be something more to them than a mere iridescent dream. 

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My dear Mr. Thurman: I have just written a letter to the committee of invitation, who had done me the honor of inviting me to the banquet to be given to celebrate your 77th birthday, expressing to them my regret at being prevented from joining them by my engagements here. But I wish to say to you personally how glad I should have been to take you by the hand once more, especially on such an occasion, and how sorry I am to find it impossible. The memory of the old days when we sat together in the Senate Chamber, and of the struggles in many of which we stood side by side, and of the cordial feelings we always entertained toward one another, is