Carl Schurz

“ A Senator of the United States who does not know, or who pretends not to know, the difference between a revenue tariff with incidental protection, and a protective tariff with incidental revenue; who regards, or pretends to regard, a recommendation slipped once into a party platform, like the recommendation of penny postage, as of equal moral authority with a solemn pledge that has been prominent in every national platform for a quarter of a century, like the pledge of civil service reform ”

“ Do you really mean to make your constituents believe that, inasmuch as since the enactment of the civil service law in 1883 the government has expended constantly increasing amounts of money for pensions, for rivers and harbors, for the new navy, for public buildings and various other purposes, and the incidental cost of administration, this increase is chargeable to the effects of the civil service law? Do you really consider the people of New Hampshire so imbecile that they should not see through so shallow a trick? ”

“ Do you not offer them a mortal insult by presenting to them such nonsense as argument? And if your constituents were capable of suffering themselves to be deceived by such unspeakable absurdities, or to accept the insult without resentment, would such an attempt at deception under any circumstances be the part of an honest man? Is there really no blush rising to your cheeks when you look at your performance?
These are the three falsehoods which, when writing my last letter, I selected for exposure from a larger number. ”