CARL SCHURZ'S POLITICAL CAREER
Liberal Republican party faded gradually out of existence. Its organization disappeared; its members sought shelter, some again in the Republican, some in the Democratic fold. But Mr. Schurz and his thoroughly kindred spirits could have no thoughts of party affiliation while maladministration, corruption or false notions of public finance were in control. The greenback and inflation heresy affected both parties, but it found a distinctly better reception among the Democrats. The Independents were radical hard-money men, and they found in President Grant's veto of the worst inflation bill in the spring of 1874 partial atonement for the shortcomings of his administration. With the return of the old war horses of the Bourbon Democracy among the victors of 1874 came frequent proclamations of the ancient party spirit. This still further repelled the Independents. But there was in the Democratic as in the Republican party an element in strong sympathy with the ideals of the reformers, and the possibility of securing through these elements an effective recognition of reform by both parties was the thought that determined Mr. Schurz's preparations for the next presidential campaign.
Throughout the spring of 1875 there was much correspondence on the subject between Schurz and the various members of the brilliant coterie of intimates who looked to him as leader. E. L. Godkin, Horace White, General J. D. Cox, Samuel Bowles, Charles Nordhoff, Murat Halstead, and the sons of Charles Francis Adams, especially Henry and Charles Francis, Jr., were prominent in this group, and a number of them met Schurz at a private dinner in New York at the end of April, where the plan of campaign for the next year was thoroughly canvassed. Shortly afterwards Mr. Schurz crossed the ocean to spend several months in Europe.
During the summer State politics in Ohio took a turn
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