Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/257

Rh to tell you why I think that David B. Hill should not be elected governor, and that the movement which has put forward Everett P. Wheeler as its standard-bearer deserves support. This being no time for sweet circumlocution, I shall speak to you in plain language and endeavor to call things by their right names. Let me begin with a chapter of contemporaneous history which, although well known, needs constant repetition.

There is in this municipality a great struggle going on which is to decide whether the city of New York shall be owned by the inhabitants thereof or by Tammany Hall. It has long been popularly believed that Tammany Hall is a nest of rapacious freebooters. But recent disclosures of corruption, of blackmail, of robbery, of vice and crime planted and protected for revenue, of terrorism, of cruel oppression practiced upon the poor, the weak and the helpless, have gone far beyond popular expectation. I know Tammany Hall disclaims responsibility for some of these atrocities. But they were inspired by the Tammany spirit; they found in the Tammany “pull” their encouragement and assurance of impunity; they filled Tammany pockets; they helped to keep Tammany in power, and they are properly charged to the Tammany system of government. I have seen something of the world, and affirm that in no civilized country, and hardly in any uncivilized, is there a government which, in foulness of corruption, in insatiable rapacity, in criminal practices, in cruel oppression of the lowly, equals Tammany rule.

The good citizens of New York concluded at last that it was time to make an end of this. They organized a City Club, Good Government clubs, a German-American Reform Union and various other bodies, and from day to day the call grew louder for a union of all honest men without distinction of party—all against Tammany. The Tammany chiefs became alarmed.