Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/544

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
520
The Writings of
[1898

you in my behalf whether there had really been any matter [?] of difference between the United States and Germany concerning the Philippines, had remained unanswered. I regret this, for it was my purpose to do something toward allaying the unpleasant feeling which at present seems to exist between the German-Americans and a part of their fellow-citizens. But I have to be silent with regard to this matter so long as I am not myself well informed.

I take the liberty of sending you herewith a pamphlet copy of the speech I delivered at the Saratoga conference.




TO SHERMAN S. ROGERS

New York, Oct. 18, 1898.

I have finished a letter to Mr. Richmond, our common friend, who anticipated you for a few days in giving reasons for supporting Roosevelt in spite of his vagaries. I have told Mr. Richmond that, painful as the conclusion is to me, I cannot, after Roosevelt's pronunciamento in his Carnegie Hall speech, give him my vote, and in two or three days I intend to say so publicly. Roosevelt has made his own issues in such a way that they cannot be put aside. If he is elected it will be an endorsement by the people of New York of his wild imperialistic ideas as put forth in his Carnegie Hall speech. It will be an encouragement to the craziest sort of jingoism and put him on the road to the Presidency, or at least to the Presidential nomination. You say that he will surely kill Platt. I am not so certain of that. What he is doing now is, by his popularity as a hero, to help Platt in stocking the legislature with his tools. The fate of Black shows conclusively enough that the mere opposition of a governor will not kill a boss. Besides, Roosevelt is a candidate for the Presidency, and if as a candidate for