Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/135

Rh Cleveland's Cabinet to cover the scandalous debauch of the public service, the barefaced misuse of official influence resorted to, to continue Mr. Harrison in office. And if the manner of Mr. Harrison's nomination proves anything, it is that, even for reasons other than his own merits, Mr. Cleveland should surely be elected.

“Granting all this to be true,” I hear a timid business man say, “but if the Democrats, with their extreme doctrines on the tariff, come into power, will they not hurt our industries and cause injurious business disturbances? Are you not asking of us too great a sacrifice for the general good of the Republic?” No, I do not. In the first place, there is no sacrifice too great for the general good of the Republic. This is not the talk of an idealist, a visionary. I only do not think meanly of the American people. I remember the time, the time of the civil war, when the Americans showed themselves ready to sacrifice everything, their comfort, their wealth, their lives, for the general good of the Republic, and I do not think we have so degenerated that the spirit of self-sacrifice for the common good is dead.

But I do not ask for any sacrifice. You might, perhaps, call it natural that I should think so, because I am known to believe that the abandonment of the high protective system would be a great boon to this country, morally as well as economically—morally, because it would stop the most dangerous source of corruption and revive among our people the old spirit of self-reliance; and economically because, instead of destroying our industries, it would only put them upon a healthier footing by giving them cheap raw material and enabling them to conquer the markets of the world. Instead of lowering wages, it would raise and steady them by steadier employment; instead of unsettling business, it would only relieve it of the constant changes which every high-tariff policy brings with it, and