The Writings of Carl Schurz/To G. W. M. Pittman, June 15th, 1884
TO G. W. M. PITTMAN
Your kind letter of the 11th has reached me. I regret most sincerely that we do not agree as to supporting Mr. Blaine for the Presidency. Let me assure you it was by no means with a light heart that I declared myself against him. But I could not conscientiously do otherwise. The Republican party has been called the party of moral ideas. It once deserved that name. It has been regarded the world over as the guardian of our National honor and good-faith. We have now a question of political ethics to deal with in which the character of the Republican party is directly involved. There has been a good deal of demoralization and rottenness since the war, public and private, in politics and business. Of late, the crop of shame and disgrace has been rather abundant. And now the Republican party, the party of moral ideas, the standard-bearer of National honor, is the first one to declare worthy of the highest honors of the Republic a man who by his public record, by his own published correspondence, stands convicted of trading upon his high official position and power for his own pecuniary advantage. It says to the youth of the country that such things may be done with public approval, and that men who do it may become Presidents of the United States if they are only “smart” enough to strike a popular fancy.
The Republican party that does this plants a seed which, if permitted to take root, will surely bear a terrible crop of demoralization and corruption. It is not the Republican party I have been serving. The best service which, as I think, can now be rendered to it and to the country, is to prevent that dreadful aberration from bringing forth its fatal fruit by making it manifest that a man with such a record may be nominated but cannot be elected. This is what, in my judgment, and I am glad to say in the judgment of many thousands of Republicans, the honor of the country and the safety of republican institutions demand, and if I, as a citizen, have any duty to perform, I conceive it to be in this direction.
There is, therefore, no prospect that we shall meet on the Blaine side. May I not hope that we may meet on the Anti-Blaine side before the end of the campaign?