The Writings of Carl Schurz/To Charles Francis Adams, Jr., November 5th, 1899
TO CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, JR.
Your letter of the 3d reached me yesterday. I admit that the alternative before us is dreadful. My opinion of Bryan and that crowd is probably no better than yours. My opinion of McKinley, Hanna and their crowd is, I apprehend, not as good as yours. At any rate, if a cruel fate should force me to choose between McKinley and the imperialistic policy, and Bryan as the anti-imperialist candidate, I should consider it my duty—a horrible duty—to swallow all my personal disgust and to defeat—or, at least, try to defeat—imperialism at any cost. I do not see how I could act otherwise. And I consider it good policy that those who think as I do, should announce their determination beforehand, for the reason that it might have a sobering effect upon the Republican politicians in Congress.
At the Chicago Conference of Anti-Imperialists there were men from about thirty States. All of them, but a very few, perhaps half a dozen, had voted for McKinley. Not one of them is going to do so again. I met a club of sound-money Democrats in Chicago, and I was told that they were all of the same mind.
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