Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 6.djvu/293

Rh disposed, to send me as Ambassador to St. Petersburg. Although some extreme partisan papers violently protested against such a place being given to a man that recognized no party obligation, the rumor gained such strength that it was believed by many and even passed into the European press as a matter of fact. How and where that rumor originated, I have never been able to discover. In all probability Mr. McKinley never thought of any such arrangement. Certain it is that I never thought of it and should not have accepted the place, had it been offered to me, not only because I was not in the least inclined to enter the public service again in an official capacity, but also because I had contributed my efforts to the sound-money cause, and incidentally to the election of Mr. McKinley, as a free gift for which I could not take anything looking like a partisan reward; and finally because I could not have held an office of that kind under an Administration the main object of whose economic policy was certain to be a protective tariff of the extreme kind. I must, therefore, recognize the good taste of Mr. McKinley in not making to me any such offer, but in confining himself to a mark of courtesy and kind feeling which was entirely fitting the circumstances but which resulted in a curious and, as it turned out, a startling and highly significant experience.

A few weeks after Mr. McKinley's inauguration as President he visited the city of New York to take part in the ceremonies of the dedication of General Grant's tomb. I received a note from his private secretary informing me that President McKinley wished to see me in order to talk over with me the political situation; would I not call upon him at such an hour in the Windsor Hotel? Of course, I respectfully and gladly obeyed the invitation. We sat together fully an hour and a half, smoking cigars and talking. Our friendly conversation ranged over the