Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/562

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CARL SCHURZ'S POLITICAL CAREER

great majority of the voters. It was not in Mr. Schurz's nature, however, to abandon so righteous a cause. He continued to sustain the agitation of the anti-imperialists, whose special aims now were, first, to expose and check the demoralization of the army, as manifested in the inhuman methods employed in subduing the Filipinos; and, second, to secure some formal pledge from the government of the United States that Philippine independence was the ultimate goal of its policy. The counsel and drafting pen of Mr. Schurz, after Roosevelt succeeded McKinley in the White House, exerted considerable influence in checking the cruelties and in helping to bring about an official declaration, however vague as to time, that the Filipinos were some day to have their independence.

There was rarely a year when Mr. Schurz was not busy with some phase of New York City politics or public interests. In the mayoralty campaign of 1901 he supported and spoke for Seth Low, the candidate of the fusionists, though the opposing candidate, Edward M. Shepard, had long been Mr. Schurz's intimate personal friend and close political associate. Mr. Shepard had the somewhat quixotic conception that he could head the Tammany ticket and then carry out his aims as a reformer. Mr. Schurz lamented his course, without questioning Mr. Shepard's motives. Each respected the purpose of the other and the ability with which it was sustained; and the campaign, which resulted in Shepard's defeat, left no trace on the personal relations of the two men.

Mr. Schurz was much engaged also, during the years following 1900, in the cause of civil-service reform, especially in his own State and city. The wrecking of the Democratic party in the East by the Bryan movement and the translation of Mr. Roosevelt to Washington left New York State in the hands of a Republican “machine,” the spirit and method of which

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