CARL SCHURZ'S POLITICAL CAREER
to deal with in case all those islands should pass into our full possession.”
No such considerations, however, could stem the tide that swept the administration toward the policy of annexation. In his abhorrence of such an outcome Mr. Schurz made opposition to it the touchstone of his political sympathies. He saw that it had become the paramount question of the time, and took his stand without regard to whether it separated him from old friends or brought him into association with former enemies: his politics had always been based upon chosen policies, not upon chosen friendships. In the autumn of 1898 Mr. Roosevelt, fresh from his spectacular career in Cuba, was nominated for Governor by the Republicans of New York. Many claimed that his election would signify the triumph of the civil-service-reform principles for which Schurz had long worked ardently. But Schurz saw another Roosevelt than the quondam civil-service commissioner. In fact, Roosevelt's imperialistic aspirations were notorious, and he took occasion early in the campaign to proclaim them with unmistakable emphasis. Schurz promptly abandoned his cause. “We have long been friends,” he wrote, “and I ardently hoped to be able to support you for the Governorship. … I continued to hope until I read the report of your Carnegie Hall speech. … It makes it impossible to support you … I cannot tell you, remembering our long and sincere friendship, how painful it is for me to be obliged to say this.”
The announcement of his opposition to Roosevelt brought Schurz scores of regrets and reproaches from old associates in reform movements in the State. They regarded Roosevelt as the peculiar champion of anti-machine politics and administration in State affairs; Schurz regarded him as primarily a candidate for the Presidency of the United States on a platform
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