Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/134

110 Carolina and other indications show, the patronage of the government was unblushingly employed as a bribery fund to swell the Harrison vote. Mr. Harrison's nomination was, therefore, not, as it has been called, a victory of public opinion over the machine; it was the victory of one machine over another—the victory of the officeholders machine over the machine of the disappointed office-seekers. And considering that every one of the countless placemen taking part in the local caucuses and conventions, and in and around the National Convention itself, was for the possession of his office dependent on the pleasure of the very man for whose continuance in office he was to vote and work, the renomination of Mr. Harrison has been one of the most scandalous exhibitions of the misuse of official power ever beheld in this country—the culminating triumph of a system corrupt in itself and tending to demoralize the whole body-politic.

The Republicans themselves feel the disgraceful character of this business. They do not even attempt to deny or to justify it. In the soreness of their embarrassment they resort to the childish expedient of trying to meet the charge with the counter-charge that some of Mr. Cleveland's former Cabinet Ministers took an active interest in promoting his nomination. Well, why should they not? For four years they have been private citizens, and so has Mr. Cleveland. There is no official relation between them. For four years they have not had any official influence to exercise. They have no power to appoint any one to office, nor to remove any one. They have absolutely nothing to do with the Government service. Was there even the faintest shadow of an impropriety in what they did as independent private citizens? No. If there ever was an excuse carrying with it a confessed consciousness of guilt, it is this pitiable quibble about gentlemen who some years ago were in Mr.