The Writings of Carl Schurz
TO JAMES A. GARFIELD[1]
My dear Garfield: Those are not the least sincere and faithful among your friends who tell you the truth even when it is not pleasant. I consider it a duty to say to you that your letter of acceptance has been a great disappointment to very many good men who hailed your nomination with joy and hope. Especially the vagueness of your language on the financial question, and still more the positive abandonment of ground taken, and to a great extent maintained, by the present Administration with regard to the civil service, have greatly discouraged many who expected to support you with enthusiasm and would have done so with effect. I enclose a letter from Horace White which is only one of a large number I have received and which indicate that the same feelings are alive with a much more numerous class of voters than that which he represents. You will find a tone of regret running through many Republican newspapers that do not always give an indiscriminate approval to whatever the party and its candidates may do or say. I do not even mean here the Nation and kindred periodicals. I know how I feel about it myself and how much stronger that feeling would be, did I not know you personally.
- ↑ Republican candidate for President.
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