The Writings of Carl Schurz/To Henry Cabot Lodge, June 22d, 1880
TO HENRY CABOT LODGE
Washington, June 22, 1880.
Thanks for your kind letter of the 2Oth. Garfield was here a few days ago and I had a full talk with him. There will be a complete refutation of the charges by one of his friends very soon. I am inclined to think that it will be addressed to the Nation. At any rate, it will come. I have known Garfield very well for many years, and I have full confidence in his integrity. He is, in my opinion, incapable of a dishonest act, although a shrewd lobby agent may have succeeded in placing him in an equivocal position. I think the country will soon be fully satisfied of the uprightness of his character.
Your work at Chicago was admirably done. There is only one thing I might find fault with: When Conkling offered the resolution binding all the delegates to support the nominee, whoever that nominee might be, he ought to have been put down at once and with the greatest emphasis. I am sure it might have been done by a single speech.
But the work of the machine, so ingeniously contrived, was undone in the neatest and most businesslike manner. On the whole, the results of the Convention are a great blessing to the country. They will have a restraining effect upon the bad elements in both parties. There is much that we may congratulate ourselves upon.
Now—will you be nominated for Congress? I hope so.