Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/267

Rh it? Or to hurt it only a little, and at the same time to furnish the surgeon who will surely set it upon its legs again, and restore its power for mischief? And this at the very moment when by thorough action that hideous nest of corruption and despotism may be stamped out! Have you considered what an awful responsibility you take in trying to deprive the present great uprising of good citizenship of its ultimate and most valuable fruit, to frustrate this rare opportunity and to discredit non-partisan reform movements for years to come? Have you considered what curses will follow you, curses of the betrayed and the robbed and the oppressed, if you succeed?

But more. Only recently the rascally and tyrannical methods of the Democratic State machine excited you to righteous indignation. You declared that the Democratic party could not live under it; you declared it incompatible with your character as gentlemen to submit to it. You protested; you got up the anti-snapper movement; you organized the State Democracy—all against the machine. Well, who is the State machine? David B. Hill. And if you make him governor again—what then? Why, the machine will be stronger, and, after having victoriously passed through such a crisis, more arbitrary and despotic than ever. And will you then organize other anti-machine movements? Oh, no; for after this year's pro-Hill performance no self-respecting man will again trust the sincerity of your leadership. You will be what David B. Hill wishes his Democratic opponents to be: impotent and despised.

But still more. You call yourselves Cleveland Democrats and supporters of his patriotic purposes. Consider what you are now about to do for him and for the aims he represents. You elect Hill and you give him a prestige of personal strength and success such as he never had before, and as is enjoyed at present by no other Democrat.