will enable us to be candid with ourselves, and with that determination of purpose which is necessary to arm us for the struggle with inveterate habit, prejudice and the corrupt influences developed to such alarming power in our political life.
TO JACOB D. COX[1]
Washington, Feb. 3, 1871.
I regret very much not to have seen you when you were here. I should have been very glad to have a conversation with you on matters in which we have a common interest. I have to thank you for the very kind letter you wrote me some time ago. You understand my position perfectly, and your approval of my course is a great encouragement to me. I appreciate it highly. The Republican party is drifting into great dangers. You know as well as I do that tinder this Administration a great many things are as they ought not to be. To cover up and conceal all that is bad would be a course at the same time immoral and impracticable. To attack existing evils in order to cure them is a task which requires more moral courage than you find among the common run of partisans. And he who is bold enough to attempt it will soon find his motives suspected and his party-standing imperiled. And yet it must be done, or the cause we have so zealously been fighting for will drift upon the rocks.
I have made up my mind to go on, without regard to my own political fortunes, preaching the doctrine that a party like ours cannot be successful without being honest. And I am confident, we shall have a good many converts to that faith before the next Presidential election.
- ↑ Secretary of the Interior, 1869-70.
