Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/531

 time, the summer of 1892, in the midst of their second contest, and the chief issues were the tariff and the currency.

We need to take only a glance backward to appreciate how deep and hopeful Schurz's interest was. It will be recalled that his disappointment with Cleveland's civil-service achievements at Washington, a few years earlier, was profound and almost bitter; but the famous tariff message of December, 1887, had revealed a spirit and purpose in the President that made an irresistible appeal to nearly all the Independents, and they had supported Cleveland in his unsuccessful campaign of 1888. The Harrison administration, not yet ended, had afforded no inducement to the Independents to transfer their sympathy and support to the Republicans. Blaine's foreign policy had caused grave apprehension among conservative men. Cleveland's tariff challenge had been met with the McKinley Bill. The long dormant Southern question had been revived by the Federal Elections Bill. The threatening free-silver agitation had not been opposed except by the disastrous Sherman Silver-Purchase Act. Every leading item of Republican policy, in short, was offensive to Schurz's strongest convictions.

Accordingly Schurz and his political friends had eagerly supported the project of renominating Cleveland in 1892. The chief obstacle to this project was the violent and unscrupulous opposition of David B. Hill, then Governor of New York, and Tammany Hall, who together had absolute control of the Democratic State organization. In State and municipal politics Mr. Schurz had, since settling in New York, become prominent in every movement against Tammany and its allies. It gave added zest, therefore, to his efforts in favor of Cleveland's nomination, that success would mean the defeat of the Hill-Tammany combination. For the promotion of his