Frederic Bancroft and William A. Dunning

“ He considered the popular man from Maine a particularly objectionable example of those politicians to whom politics is a sport—a great game played before millions of spectators—in which success means the triumph of a person rather than the promotion of social truth and justice. In the revelations of 1876 as to Blaine's connection with land-grant railroads, Schurz saw the confirmation of his impression and much more. ”

“ At Washington, surrounded by eager party leaders, he found strict adhesion to reform principles in removals and appointments practically impossible save at great risk to other important elements of his policy. Whether risk or complete sacrifice, the radical Independents urgently demanded it in the name of plighted faith. The spoilsmen, in the name of party interest, were as insistent in the opposite direction. ”

“ When the blacks should make a little more progress in the accumulation of property and in general intelligence their party allegiance would become divided; the diversification of industry, already far advanced, would at the same time divide the whites; and through the normal operation of economic and political motives the color line would disappear, whites and blacks voting side by side in the party to which their interests assigned them. Not giving sufficient weight to the persistency of race antipathies, Mr. Schurz's predictions to-day seem doubtful of fulfilment ”

“ For the mass of people who had failed to reach his own intellectual level Schurz felt sympathy; for those whom his truly great powers could not convince Godkin often felt contempt or at best indifference. At a time when capital and labor were in frequent conflict and politics was shifting from constitutional to economic and administrative issues, such differences of feeling must produce unpleasant results. The purely technical side of editorial management also gave occasion for trouble. Godkin as editor of the Nation had highly appreciated contributions from Schurz. ”

“ Schurz had never parted from the belief that the United States must walk in the paths of peace, and especially must beware of the tropics. Yet when the test came in 1884, he felt that the stress must be laid on the issue of personal honesty and public morality. In September of 1882 Blaine had published in the Chicago Tribune a long attack on Schurz, directed to showing in particular that in their respective Cabinet careers Schurz had grossly betrayed, while Blaine had systematically sustained, the principles of civil-service reform. ”

“ To Cleveland Schurz wrote, after a conference on the subject: “While the three Southern men named [Bayard, Lamar, Garland] are all United States Senators of renown and experience, the Northern men [Manning, Endicott, Vilas] are all new men without experience and established standing in public affairs.” In a letter of March 2d to Lamar, Mr. Schurz expressed his dissatisfaction without reserve. The selection of Manning he declared to be a terrible load for the Independents to carry, because Manning was without standing in national affairs and had the reputation of a mere machine politician. ”

“ There is a condition of public confidence under which all a man does is construed favorably, and there is another under which all is construed unfavorably. You have had all the advantages of the first. ”

“ The moral issue was befogged in the popular thought by serious charges of private immorality in earlier years on the part of Cleveland. Western Republicans especially received with stolidity the exhortations to save the country by voting for such a Democrat. Blaine was defeated by only the narrowest possible margin. The closeness of the result really emphasized the triumph of the Independents, for it left no room to doubt that they determined the outcome. And the victors and the vanquished agreed, however reluctantly, that the chief laurels belonged to Mr. Schurz. ”

“ But the production of literature, and most of all historical literature, is unremunerative. Although both thrifty and industrious, probably he never felt entirely comfortable financially for a whole year unless he was adding to his income by labors that were not wholly those of a man of letters. Politics may have aided him in journalism and on the lyceum stage ”

“ Mr. Cleveland declined to permit him, any more than any other officeholder, “to embarrass and discredit me in what I know and you know ... to be honest efforts to give the people good government.” The President later apologized for this letter, confessing that it was written under the influence of great irritation. The cause of this feeling was obviously the expectation that the League would strongly denounce the administration. Curtis' presidential address did indeed set in strong light the wide gap between the administration's performance and the reformers' hopes ”

“ Is it the business of a reform administration to invite the millionaire who has no other distinction than his money also into the Cabinet? These questions will be asked. What answer can we give to the patriotic men who followed our lead?”
Cleveland had been in the White House but a few weeks when his policy in the matter of the offices became the center of an extremely fierce contest between the Democrats of “spoils” proclivities and the Independents. Shortly after the election the National Committee of the Independents had, with Mr. ”