Carl Schurz

“ I am not in favor of criticizing the private conduct of candidates for office, unless it is absolutely necessary. But it becomes absolutely necessary when that private conduct reveals faults of character which would render the candidate unfit for the office to which he aspires. Mr. Fellows is an eloquent man, and, I suppose, a pleasant companion. He may possess other estimable qualities; he may be good yet for many things in this world. ”

“ Many a time you have given the people to understand that you regarded public office as a public trust. When you oppose what is generally looked upon as demanded by the public voice as well as the public interest, it must be expected that you have weighty reasons for it — reasons corresponding with your character and station. ”

“ For more than thirty years I have been an attentive observer of political events, and never, never have I witnessed more wanton recklessness on the part of party leaders, sacrificing the interests and good name of a great municipality, the character of a National Administration, as well as the interests of their party and cause, to their blundering folly or their small selfishness. ”

“ And since the district attorney's office appeared as the soul of the prosecutions, as the principal protector of the public interest and honor, Mr. Nicoll, who had done so well in the past, was regarded as especially trustworthy for the future — in fact, as the special representative of the vigor of the law.
That ordinary political hucksters who derive their sustenance from selfish combinations should have opposed him was not surprising. But nobody reckoned you among that class. You are a man of recognized ability and high social standing. ”

“ We believed that as mayor of this great city you would infuse an element of superior intelligence and honor into the conduct of our municipal affairs, and, by the force of your example as well as by the legitimate use of your influence, endeavor to emancipate them from the rule of that narrow-minded, selfish and not infrequently corrupt partisanship from which the community has in the past suffered so much injury and disgrace. You cannot fail to remember how you encouraged that belief.
No just man will deny that many of your acts have deserved and obtained the applause of your fellow-citizens. ”

“ They only gave voice and expression to a demand which embodied the best impulses of our people and did honor to the community — the demand for justice and good government. Will you make us believe that, as “self-respecting men,” you and your friends among the leaders of the Democratic party could not have yielded to that demand because among the newspapers expressing it there was one you did not like? Let us see where that kind of “self-respect” has carried you.
I know that we cannot expect our candidates for office to be perfect angels. ”

“ It is by the blind infatuation which has led these leaders to drag even the National Administration with them into the mire of a bad cause.
What malignant enemy of President Cleveland was it that induced Mr. Cooper to extort from him that most unfortunate letter intermeddling in New-York City politics on the side of the typical “dead beat” as a candidate for an office which is the guardian of the public honor? If the President had had a true friend in your councils, that friend would have strained every nerve to confirm his disinclination to descend from the high dignity of his office ”

“ If the Democratic party has been hurt by anything connected with this struggle about the district attorneyship, it is by the perverseness of some of its leaders, who rejected the man who most clearly represents at this juncture the cause of justice and good government, and by the nomination of a man whose success would make every rascal in the land rejoice. ”

“ Fellows would not be repaired, but it would be aggravated, by his election. “He serves his party best who serves his country best,” and surely the rank and file of your party can, under existing circumstances, do no better service to themselves and to their cause than by showing that, whatever the vagaries of some of their leaders, the masses at least are sound at heart and worthy of confidence. ”

“ In private life you would, as a “self-respecting” man, probably leave any one guilty of these things to the society of his boon companions, to the mercy of his creditors and, perhaps, to the attention of the police. ”

“ To the last minute I shall not cease to hope that your true self-respect will reassert itself and draw you away from that side on which, as you well know, you can find to-day every thief, every corruptionist, every law-breaker in New-York, including those who have run to Canada — for there is not one of them who does not pray for the election of Mr. ”