Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 1White, Andrew Dickson
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Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White — Volume 1
White, Andrew Dickson
Cornell University; Diplomats -- United States -- Biography; White, Andrew Dickson, 1832-1918
Newspapers were teeming with misrepresentations of
the President's course, but they failed to ruffle him. On
his asking if I was taking any part in the campaign, I
referred to a speech that I had made on the Fourth of July
in Leipsic, and another to the Cornell University students
just before my departure, with the remark that I felt that
a foreign diplomatic representative coming home and
throwing himself eagerly into the campaign might possibly
do more harm than good. In this remark he acquiesced,
and said: ``I shall not, myself, make any speeches
whatever; nor shall I give any public receptions. My record
is before the American people, and they must pass
judgment upon it. In this respect I shall go back to what
seems to me the better practice of the early Presidents.''
I was struck by the justice of this, and told him so,
although I felt obliged to say that he would be under fearful
temptation to speak before the campaign had gone much
farther. He smiled, but held to his determination, despite
the fact that his opponent invaded all parts of the Union
in an oratorical frenzy, in one case making a speech at
half-past two in the morning to a crowd assembled at a
railway station, and making during one day thirty-one
speeches, teeming with every kind of campaign misrepresentation;
but the President was faithful to his promise,
uttered no word in reply, and was re<e:>lected.
Not only at home, but abroad, as I can amply testify, the
news of his re<e:>lection was received with general satisfaction,
and most of all by those who wish well to our country
and cherish hopes that government by the people and for
the people may not be brought to naught by the wild
demagogism which has wrecked all great republics thus
far.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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