CARL SCHURZ'S POLITICAL CAREER
Birthday, 1884, in Brooklyn. On that occasion Schurz made the chief address. Its reception was very encouraging. There was an intense feeling against Blaine among Republicans. Yet as the date of the Republican national convention drew near, the energy with which Blaine's candidacy was promoted made his success almost certain. This was the outcome the Independents most deprecated. Nevertheless, Blaine was nominated on the fourth ballot. Mr. Schurz, who was on the platform of the convention as a distinguished guest, took out his watch, noted the time and, turning to an old friend, remarked: “That is the hour and minute which will go down in history as marking the death of the Republican party.”
This prophecy probably reflected in some measure the persistence in the speaker's mind of the conviction that had almost continually possessed him since the early seventies—that the old parties had outlived their usefulness. Much more, however, did it express the depth of his feeling that the nominee was unworthy. 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. The aggressive tone given to our diplomacy in South America when Blaine was Secretary of State had aroused grave apprehensions. 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
[ 404 ]
