CARL SCHURZ'S POLITICAL CAREER
conference was held at St. Louis on the 6th of May, at which resolutions denouncing the third term were adopted and provision was made for the appointment of a committee of one hundred to meet in New York in case of Grant's nomination and take appropriate action. The organization of this committee duly proceeded, under Schurz's close observation and counsel; and it was practically completed when the action of the Republican convention in nominating Garfield rendered further procedure by the “anti-third-termers” unnecessary.
Garfield was nearer to Schurz's ideal of a presidential candidate than any man whose name had been seriously brought forward in the Republican party. Yet, as candidate, Garfield manifested disquieting tendencies in respect both to persons and to principles. His generous and enthusiastic impulses led him, in the development of a hot and doubtful campaign, to yield to influences that compromised his intellectual consistency. His attitude toward civil-service reform gave special distress to Mr. Schurz. In the Republican convention a resolution favoring the reform and demanding its promotion was rejected by the committee on resolutions, but was moved in the convention by the Massachusetts delegation. Opposition to the resolution was strong, and the debate elicited the ever-famous query of the outraged Flanagan of Texas: “What are we here for, if not to get the offices?” The plank was adopted, however, though with every indication that its serious supporters were in fact but few. Garfield's letter of acceptance, so far from counteracting this effect by a vigorous plea for reform, gave but the most perfunctory approval to the resolution, and coupled this with what amounted to a repudiation of all that the Hayes administration had stood for in respect to Congressional patronage and the political activity of office-holders.
[ 395 ]
