Courier-Journal Office, Louisville, July 9, 1892.—My Dear Mr.
President: I inclose you two editorial articles from the
Courier-Journal, and, that their spirit and purpose may not be
misunderstood by you, I wish to add a word or two of a kind directly
and entirely personal.
To a man of your robust understanding and strong will, opposition and
criticism are apt to be taken as more or less unfriendly; and, as you
are at present advised, I can hardly expect that any words of mine will
be received by you with sentiments either of confidence or favor.
I was admonished by a certain distrust, if not disdain, visited upon
the honest challenge I ventured to offer your Civil Service policy,
when you were actually in office, that you did not differ from some
other great men I have known in an unwillingness, or at least an
inability, to accept, without resentment, the question of your
infallibility. Nevertheless, I was then, as I am now, your friend, and
not your enemy, animated by the single purpose to serve the country,
through you, as, wanting your great opportunities, I could not serve it
through myself.
During the four years when you were President, I asked you but for one
thing that lay near my heart. You granted that handsomely; and, if you
had given me all you had to give beside, you could not have laid me
under greater obligation. It is a gratification to me to know, and it
ought to be some warrant both of my intelligence and fidelity for you
to remember that that matter resulted in credit to the Administration
and benefit to the public service.
But to the point; I had at St. Louis in 1888 and at Chicago, the
present year, to oppose what was represented as your judgment and
desire in the adoption of a tariff plank in our national platform;
successfully in both cases. The inclosed articles set forth the reasons
forcing upon me a different conclusion from yours, in terms that may
appear to you bluntly specific, but I hope not personally offensive;
certainly not by intention, for, whilst I would not suppress the truth
to please you or any man, I have a decent regard for the sensibilities
and the rights of all men, particularly of men so eminent as to be
beyond the reach of anything except insolence and injustice. Assuredly
in your case, I am incapable of even so much as the covert thought of
either, entertaining for you absolute respect and regard. But, my dear
Mr. President, I do not think that you appreciate the overwhelming
force of the revenue reform issue, which has made you its idol.
[Illustration: A Corner of “Mansfield”—Home of Mr. Watterson]
If you will allow me to say so, in perfect frankness and without
intending to be rude or unkind, the gentlemen immediately about you,
gentlemen upon whom you rely for material aid and energetic party
management, are not, as to the Tariff, Democrats at all; and have
little conception of the place in the popular mind and heart held by
the Revenue Reform idea, or, indeed of any idea, except that of
organization and money.
Of the need of these latter, no man has a more realizing sense, or
larger information and experience, than I have. But they are merely the
brakes and wheels of the engine, to which principles and inspirations
are, and must always be, the elements of life and motion. It is to
entreat you therefore, in your coming letter and address, not to
underestimate the tremendous driving power of this Tariff issue, and to
beg you, not even to seem to qualify it, or to abridge its terms in a
mistaken attempt to seem to be conservative.
You cannot escape your great message of 1887 if you would. I know it by
heart, and I think that I perfectly apprehend its scope and tenor. Take
it as your guiding star. Stand upon it. Reiterate it. Emphasize it,
amplify it, but do not subtract a thought, do not erase a word. For
every vote which a bold front may lose you in the East you will gain
two votes in the West. In the East, particularly in New York, enemies
lurk in your very cupboard, and strike at you from behind your chair at
table. There is more than a fighting chance for Illinois, Iowa, and
Minnesota, and next to a certainty in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana,
if you put yourself personally at the head of the column which is
moving in your name, supposing it to be another name for reduced taxes
and freer exchanges.
Discouraged as I was by the condition of things in New York and Indiana
prior to the Chicago Convention, depressed and almost hopeless by your
nomination, I can see daylight, if you will relax your grip somewhat
upon the East and throw yourself confidently upon the West.
I write warmly because I feel warmly. If you again occupy the White
House, and it is my most constant and earnest prayer that you may, be
sure that you will not be troubled by me. I cannot hope that my motives
in opposing your nomination, consistent as you know them to have been,
or that my conduct during the post-convention discussion and canvass,
free as I know it to have been of ill-feeling, or distemper, has
escaped misrepresentation and misconception. I could not, without the
loss of my self-respect, approach you on any private matter whatever;
though it may not be amiss for me to say to you, that three weeks
before the meeting of the National Convention, I wrote to Mr. Gorman
and Mr. Brice urging the withdrawal of any opposition, and declaring
that I would be a party to no movement to work the two-thirds rule to
defeat the will of the majority.
This is all I have to say, Mr. President, and you can believe it or
not, as you please; though you ought to know that I would write you
nothing except in sincere conviction, nor speak to you, or of you,
except in a candid and kindly spirit. Trusting that this will find you
hale, hearty, and happy, I am, dear sir, your fellow democrat and most
faithful friend,