On the contrary, my best efforts and most useful work have been systematically defeated and thwarted—at what cost to our country the sequel must prove. Therefore you see I am well out of such an anomalous, almost incredible condition of affairs.
If Mr. Pendleton had been a well man, I think I could have arranged the Samoan matter in Berlin two months ago, but I have been sadly crippled. As it is, I have no idea of any collision in Samoa and think the reports are wholly without foundation. Taking up the conference in Berlin on the lines I laid down in 1887, will make a settlement easy and amicable.
Entre nous, having seen Blaine (for the first time in seven years), I am compelled to think him a very enfeebled man, and am inclined to expect a much less “aggressive policy” than he started out with in 1881. I hear nothing here but the echoes of very small politics—of a kind that you and I detest and are wholly impatient with. Wanamaker!! Laugh!!
I want a little holiday and when I come to New York will surely sit down with you.
TO JOHN WANAMAKER
I have received your letter of the 5th instant, and in reply beg leave to submit to you the inclosed copy of two notes, one addressed by me to Mr. Isidor Straus, and the other by Mr. Straus to me.[1] They show clearly how it
- ↑
On April 6th, Mr. Schurz inclosed Mr. Wanamaker's letter in a note to
Isidor Straus, in which he wrote: “I understood you to say that your
communication published in Harper's Weekly of February 9th was the
immediate result of a conversation you had with Mr. Wanamaker in
Philadelphia; that you had told him in substance what you were going to write
for publication, including the reference to my name; that he approved of it
and afterwards expressed his thanks to you for what you had done.”
To this Mr. Straus answered, April 8th, that “your impression about our conversation and the one I had with Mr. Wanamaker is correct. I ought to add, however, that Mr. Wanamaker did not see my letter before it appeared in print, although I had outlined to him, when I saw him some days before, what I intended to write.”
