our destruction; his renomination on the rag-money issue was a defiance and insult to us, and his success would render us contemptible. If we don't kill him, he will kill us.
The weapon with which to kill him is the German vote,—it is the only effective weapon at hand, and you are its holder. You must come back in time to strike in just at the close with all the freshness and prestige of your recent German reception. If you could so carry the day, our tide will set,—if not, it is a long and low ebb with us.
I hope you will consider this matter carefully. For myself, I am strongly persuaded that this year it may be well in your power to give the whole shape to next year's Presidential issue, while next year you will at most be only remotely able to influence it. I hope, therefore, you will feel disposed to sacrifice much that you may go in and smash “old Bill Allen.”
TO CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR.
| Thusis, Grisons, Switzerland, | |
| July 22, 1875. |
I have just received your letter of June 28th and hasten to reply. Many of the reasons you give for my immediate return to the United States, I debated with myself before my departure. It seems you and I do not quite agree on an important question of tactics. If I were on the ground to-day, I doubt very much whether I would feel inclined to go to Ohio to take an active part in the campaign in the name of “the Independents.” It is true that the Democrats should not be permitted to have it all their own way. But there is no danger of that. The inflationists in the Democratic convention of Ohio have struck a terrible blow at the chances of their party. If they succeed in their State election, it will be such an encouragement to the inflation element in the Democratic party as to make that element insist upon controlling their National Convention next year, which will hopelessly
