Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-09-29
STRONG FOR CLEVELAND.
Carl Schurz Gives His Views on
the Political Situation.
The Famous Statesman Condemns Harri-
son and Mckinley and Strongly
Fayors Cleveland and a Dem
ocratic Administration.

son and Mckinley and Strongly
Favors Cleveland and a Dem
ocratic Administration.
In letter to the Cleveland and
Stevenson campaign club of Kings
county. n. Y, on September 10, Hon.
Carl Schurz wrote that in consequence
of ill health he would be unable to
speak in public. but took great pleasure
in laying before the people in writing
his views on public questions. The fol-
lowing is the major portion of his let
ter.
Il for my part, although being beyond the
time Of youthful illusions, believe that o demo-
cratic republic will prove the most excellent
form OF government if administered not nsces-
sarily byangels, but by fairly virtuous, self
respecting, patient, self-restraining, sensible,
Industrious, liberty. peace and order-loving
people: and that the Americans in the same
measure as they are and remain such a people,
will successfully maintain such a government
and be strong and happy in its enjoyment
It must essentially be government of pub
lie opinion expressed in the forms OF law
Such a government will, of course. have
its shortcomings and make its mistakes,
perhaps serious ones and plenty of them. But
as long as the growth and action of public
opinion in the body polite is free and genuine
the good sense OF the people may be trusted to
bring about in time the correction of errors
and Of existing cyils-not completely perhaps
nor perfectly, but measurably, sufficiently to
make things in the end come out about right,
to keep our system of government in steady
working order and to secure to our people more
freedom and contentment than they would
have in any ether way. Paradoxical as it may
sound, this is the country in which so gov
erned, things may go badly in detail, but get
we'll on the whole. This is and viii remain
true, provided always that we do not permit
certain evil influences in politics, tending to OBJ
struct the growth and to peryert the expression
Of an honest public opinion among the people,
to continue and become stronger than they now
The most obvious of the evil influences in
politics l speak of are money and the machine
Money wrongfully used in elections cor
rupts public opinion: the machine, as far as its
influence reaches, strives by the action Of sell
fish, well-drilled AID disciplined organization to
obstruct, override, falsify, enslave public opin-
ion. Thus both tend to poison the very foun-
tain head of democratic government They do
more They serve 10 raise up systematically a
race of unprincipled self-Seeking. mercenary
politicians, and to repel from public life men
who with patriotic ambition wish to serve the
public welfare according to their honest convic-
tons. Wherever money and the machine are
strong and successful, they teach the youth Of
the country that no ability, knowledge. honesty,
public spirit, fidelity to duty, devotion to the
country will keep them in public position, but
that subserviency to sef-seekng organiza-
ton the willingness 10 sacrifice to it all higher
aims. is necessary to political success: that the
low arts Of the political manipulation worth
more to the public man than true statesman
ship; that those who are constantly troubled
by principle and high sense Of duty are i'm
practicable Missionaries and dudes and Phari-
sees; that such fools may seem to get a start
occasionally, but not for long: that he who
wishes to prosper in politics must discard such
squeamish notions; that, if he is rich, he must
literally shovel out his money without asking
where it goes; or, if he has ability, he must
place it at the service OF the organizatio for
veal or woe.
''How this sort OF politics practically works
where money and the machine are strong, we
know from the experience of municipalities
and OF states. What it would accomplish if it
spread over the whole nation we can well con-
lecture. These evils'are not confined to any one
party. Both of them have their sins to answer
for Bnt u candid study of our recent political
history and our present condition has forced
the conclusion upon me that in the republican
party these tendencies have, owing to peculiar
circumstances, come to their most dangerous
development.
Il cannot say this of the republican party
without u feeling Of profoundest regret. AS q
political being grew up in and with that
party. During its great endeavorS for human
freedom saw in it all that noblest and
best. But the citizen of a republic is not per-
mitted to forget that the duty to his country
must be more sacred to him than all party SEN
timent or obligation, and that he has no right
to be swerved from that duty even by the i'm
pulse of gratitude. While the life OF the union
was still hanging in the balance of battle the
republicans had felt, not unnaturally, that
the ascendency of the republican party was
necessary to the salvation of the republic, and
that, in maintaining that ascendency, the end
would justify the means. This belief became so
firmly rooted in the minds of multitudes of re-
publicanS that even when the vital crisis was
over, they continued to look upon any attempt
to deprive the republican party of power a
heinous onense little short of treason, and they
sanctioned even the most arbitrary measures
adopted at that period to keep the late rebel
states under republican rule as measures abso
lutely required for the protection Of the liber-
ated slave and the preservation of the union.
But the prejudices and passions of the civil war
could not remain alive forever to demonstrate
the necessity Of republican ascendency. Then
the tariff question was advanced to the fore
ground. By the exigencieS of the war the re-
publican party had been drawn into protective
policy. The protective tariff, however had at
first been presented only as a war measure, >
as a temporary necessity And after the war
the continuation Of the protective system had
been advocated in a more or less apologize
way, with constant promises of re-'sion in the
direction of lower duties II -rrrtion cam
paigns it had figured only by the side of other
more prominent issues upon which the republic
al party relied for success.
Even then, carried to that length, our tariff
policy had begun to produce very deleteriouS
effect upon the ways OF thinking and the char
acter of the American people. The Americans
had been in their daily life the most independent
people in the world. This quality was the glory
of American manhood To it more than any
thing else the American people owed their rapid
progress But the protective system, in its
more recent expansion over constantly widen
EnI11 to linz
seducing them-not mere handful of manufac-
turers, but almost all classes of the people-to
look to the government for aid and support and
protection against loss in almost everything
they do Any economic system that has the
effect of weakening the spirit of self-reliance
will deteriorate our national character, will
eventually undermine our free institutions. and
is essentially an un-American system That
system is bringing forth a most characteristic
fruit even now.
I'm 1854 something happened which by the re-
publican politicians had been represented as
equivalent to the destruction of the country.
The republicans were defeated in a presidential
election. A democratic president took the
helm Of the national government And still
more. the country was not destroyed The
democratic administration proved eminently
patriotic and safe. The old po-
litical capital upon which the republican party
had successfully banked 50 many years was
irretrieya5ly gone. Something desperate had
TO be done to regain the lost power And it was
done. In its national convention of 1888 the re-
publican party gave itself over body and soul to
the money power interested in the protective
tariff expecting from it substantial aid in the
election. I know this is grave assertion.
But If you are not yet satisfied of its truthful
ness, you need only study the history of the
campaign of 1888 and what followed There was
not the slightest popular demand for higher
tariff duties The republicans had till then sub
stantialIy admitted the desirability Of reduc-
tions and only asked that they, as the friends