"Let us supplement the half-memory of the man who wants another such demonstration of the foremost patriots, philosophers, and scholars, under the leadership once more, as we assume from the tone of his letter, of the Hon. Carl Schurz. At the time the conference met there was nothing murky in the political situation. On the Republican side the nomination of Governor Hayes, of Ohio, was clearly indicated. The _Sun_ had predicted it long before the patriots and philosophers assembled. Mr. Blaine was an aggressive candidate, and there was some third-term talk about Gen. Grant; but the Conkling-Blaine feud and the Bristow disaffection already rendered practically certain the nomination of a compromise candidate not identified with either faction, and the logic of the situation pointed directly to Governor Hayes. On the other side everything was shaping towards the event which occurred at St. Louis six weeks later, the nomination on the second ballot, by far more than the required two-thirds majority, of Samuel J. Tilden, a statesman and reformer representing with singular closeness the ideal which was declared to be in the minds of Mr. Carl Schurz and his associates.
"That celebrated address which Mr. Schurz drafted, with the assistance of the intelligence and conscience of the country, could scarcely have called more pointedly for Tilden and barred out Hayes as the President desired by the foremost patriots, philosophers, and scholars, had it mentioned their names. We quote from Mr. Carl Schurz's address to the country:
"'We shall support no candidate who, however favorably judged by his nearest friends, is not publicly known to possess those qualities of mind and character which the stern task of genuine reform requires, for the American people cannot now afford to risk the future of the republic in experiments on merely supposed virtue or rumored ability to be trusted on the strength of private recommendations.
"'The man to be intrusted with the Presidency this year must have deserved not only the confidence of honest men, but also the fear and hatred of the thieves.
"'The country must now have a President whose name is already a watchword of reform, whose capacity and courage for the work are matters of record rather than promise.'