The Writings of Carl Schurz/To J. P. Sanderson, December 22d, 1860
TO J. P. SANDERSON
Your favor of Dec. 22d is in my hands. I should go down to New York at once to call upon Mr. Hutchins if my lecturing appointments in this neighborhood did not make it impossible for me to do so. I shall, however, address him a note and try to go to New York City on Jan. 5th. Meanwhile I return you my sincerest thanks for the pains you have taken on my behalf.
I do not see, why I should not “find it consistent with my views of propriety” to give you the facts in regard to McClure's statements. When the campaign commenced, it was generally supposed that my services were needed, and I considered it my duty to devote all my time to the work before us. I did so from the very day the National Convention adjourned down to the day of the election. My correspondence and my active participation in the contest swallowed up every minute of my time, and I had to let my private affairs, disordered as they were, take care of themselves. The demands made upon me were enormous and I did my best to satisfy them. The chairman of the National Committee wrote me that I should consider myself in the service of the Committee. I wrote Governor Morgan a letter stating that it would be hard for me to devote all my time to the canvass without some remuneration, being in straitened circumstances, partly in consequence of sacrifices made for the party; and some time afterwards I addressed a note to Mr. Goodrich, the financial manager of the National Committee, making the same statement, but adding that, if nothing were done, I should try to do my work anyhow the best way I could. Situated as I was, embarrassed, with a family to support, obliged to neglect my business and private affairs, I think I had a right to demand something, and it was my duty to do so. Well, I went through the campaign, travelled over 21,000 miles from the adjournment of the National Convention to the sixth of November, delivered I do not know how many speeches, and now I will tell you what I received: From the National Committee, $500; from Indiana, $500; from Pennsylvania, not $800 but $600; and, aside from that, here and there small amounts for extra expenses incurred, the whole amounting to a little over $1800. My railroad fare alone throughout the campaign amounted to about $800. Counting the incidental wear and tear and occasional expenses as hotel-bills, etc., the money I received was just sufficient to keep myself at work and my family alive during the five months that I was active. Certain it is, that I could not pay off a single dollar I owed and had to depend upon the longanimity of my creditors as far as my private obligations are concerned. From what I learned during the campaign, there was hardly a speaker at work outside of his own State who did not receive more pay, on the whole, than I did. The consequence is that, instead of being able to rest as I ought to have done after the campaign, I have to start out again, in order to make, outside of my business, some money.