The Writings of Carl Schurz/To Sherman S. Rogers, October 18th, 1898
TO SHERMAN S. ROGERS
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 the governorship he makes the concession to the machine which you mention, how far will the concession go when the Presidency is the prize?
All this is exceedingly harrowing to me; for, as you know, my personal relations with Roosevelt have long been those of warm friendship. And I need not assure you that I heartily dislike not to agree with you. I shall vote the Independent ticket with Theodore Bacon at the head. It will be a blessing if that ticket gets votes enough to entitle the independent organization to a place on the official ballot.