Edward Cary

“ That is his work as a publicist. He has worked incessantly and disinterestedly in the discussion of those principles for the formation of public opinion and in the organization required to give to public opinion practical effect. That is his task as a politician. As politician and as publicist he has, in reality, simply fulfilled with devotion, intelligence, and vigor, with all the power of a singularly efficient mind, the duties of a citizen of the Republic.
The work of Mr. Schurz has been necessarily a continuous evolution, but it may be divided broadly in two periods. ”

“ What the institutions of the United States did for Mr. Schurz was to extend to him as a citizen freedom of speech and political action. Without that his career would have been impossible. What Mr. Schurz has done for the United States is to use his great gifts with steadfast and untiring energy for more than forty years for the maintenance and application of the highest standard of public life in the decision of the varied questions that have presented themselves in this crowded period of our history. Mr. Schurz is a publicist and a politician in the best sense of both terms. ”

“ In 1884 his leadership of the independent movement was chiefly inspired by the conviction that the “yoke of party despotism” must be thrown off if the moral power of the people as to be asserted. A like conviction has inspired his course in every succeeding canvass. It is not easy to measure the effect of a force so exerted, but no one who has watched the changing tides of public affairs will fail to see that the effect has been very great. ”

“ Gottfried Kinkel, whom he afterward rescued from the prison of Spandau, and who was in every way a most gifted and noble man, quite worthy of the splendid devotion he inspired in young Schurz. Despite his extreme youth, and despite also the modesty of this narrative, it is plain that Schurz did real service, showed rare qualities of mind and heart, and acquired a solid training which stood him in good part in his after career.
Certain of these qualities which do not usually go with youth are to be noted. ”

“ Lincoln's purpose to act decidedly against slavery was made known, and after the defeat of the Confederate invasion at Antietam, the emancipation proclamation was issued.
I pass over Mr. Schurz's military service, since, though it was very honorable, it was but a phase of that devotion to his ideal of citizenship which marked his career. In this field he had many companions of equal fidelity and achievement. In civil life has part was distinct. ”

“ The Democratic Party was torn by the growing revolt of its Northern members against the relentless and inevitable aggressions of the slave power. At this time, between the restless Democrats of the North and the imperious leaders of the South, Mr. Douglas was trying to steer a middle course with his “great principle” of “popular sovereignty.” Mr. Schurz's efforts were directed to showing that no middle course was possible; that the material salvation of slavery depended on its extension; that if that were not so, slavery compelled the existence of an aristocratic caste which must rule or ruin ”

“ Schurz, on the election of Lincoln, was named as Minister to Spain, whither he went, and remained a few months, gathering impressions which are among the most interesting of the second volume. He got leave of absence to return home to urge on the President the immense value and, as he saw it, the pressing need of a definite anti-slavery declaration. In order to arouse the moral sentiment of the world in our favor. ”

“ In the Senate he used his utmost energy to secure the complete and final retirement of the greenbacks after redemption, foretelling with singular clearness the immense evils that would follow their perpetual reissue. The victory of sound finance in the Senate was only partial. Meanwhile Mr. Schurz, in the Autumn of 1875, went into Ohio, where Mr. Hayes, the candidate for Governor, had refused, against the advice of the party leaders, to trim upon the financial issue, and made a vigorous and brilliant campaign for the definite principles he maintained in the Senate. ”

“ He sought sincerely to maintain scrupulously his own intellectual and moral independence, so far as human nature permits, and he tried conscientiously to respect to the utmost a like degree of independence in others. ”

“ The principle of free citizenship, unhampered and uncorrupted by the abuse of public employment as party spoils, is now solidly established in the entire Federal service except in one branch of the Postal Service — the smaller Post Offices — and will shortly embrace these. ”

“ I answer, Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But, like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your destiny.” Happy is the nation whose life is shaped by its citizens in which a citizen so gifted pursues steadfastly ideals so lofty.
EDWARD CARY.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1928. ”

“ And in that case, I confess my heart would behold with grief and sorrow its degradation, butt would have no tears for its defeat. * * * We must encourage moral independence in politics; we must admonish every man to think and to reason for himself, to form his own convictions, and to stand by them; we must entreat him never to accept, unseen and uninvestigated, the principles and opinions of others, even if they be our own.”
During the two-score years since these plain words were spoken Mr. Schurz has held faithfully to the standard he then defined. ”

“ He immediately entered the struggle against the aggressions of slavery, for which the Republican Party was then rapidly organizing as a National party, working especially among the large German population of the Northwest. In 1857 he was named as the Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin, and came within 200 votes of an election. In 1858 he took an active part in the Lincoln-Douglas campaign in Illinois, and then formed the friendship with Lincoln which was interrupted only by the death of the President. ”

“ Schurz's most important service was the firm and logical application of the principles and methods of civil service reform, seven years before their adoption in law, to the subordinate appointments of the Department of the Interior. He abolished patronage. he mad appointments solely on merit and fitness ascertained by competitive examinations. ”