St. Botolph Club, collectively and as individuals

“ Schurz responded and said, substantially, that whether he had deserved all that had been said about him in such pleasant words was doubtful; that he had striven to deserve it, however, was true. The praise was a continuous spurring on to him to do honor to the German and American names. We dwell, said he, in a grand country, and among a great and a noble folk. No one present could be prouder than he of his German blood; but no man could also feel prouder than he did of his American citizenship. ”

“ There was much truth in what was thus said; but it was also true that the American people were a just people, and that when their eyes were opened to such corruption, they always overthrew those responsible for it. And so it would ever be, as long as the people understood the value of their freedom. Looking at Europe, it was not too much to say that America stood as the only free country on earth. ”

“ There are no issues involving the life or death of the nation before us; there is no decision impending of such overshadowing and absorbing importance as to make us forget everything else. Unreasoning passion is out of place. We are on the whole in so favorable a condition that we can calmly consider the business in hand. A fair day is the best time for repairing the roof of our house. I trust that the American people will be mindful of this great opportunity. I am sure that the enlightened and patriotic citizens of Massachusetts will not let that opportunity pass unheeded. ”

“ We look for your support and help in the great duties of the hour before us,—the permanent reform by law of the civil service, the industrial regeneration of the South, revision of the tariff, and, above all, ample protection for the freedom and purity of the ballot box, that palladium of American freedom. The civil service will become what we need, when no one is appointed to office but the man best fitted to do its duties, no one kept in office who does not perform its duties, and no one removed from office so long as he faithfully and ably fulfills its duties. ”

“ No people on earth had made greater voluntary sacrifices for human liberty and for national existence than the American. Not only had they in the late war sent many hundreds of thousands of their sons to the battle-fields, but, aside from taxes, they had voluntarily contributed untold millions to ease the sufferings of our wounded. In all history there was to be found no people which would have made such offerings. Much had been said about American politics and American corruption. ”

“ Of the highest capacity for public affairs, and by nature and training a lover of politics in the best sense of the word, he set himself the task of comprehending the great ideas which underlie American constitutional government; and he has mastered them with the same thoroughness with which he has conquered the difficulties of the historic language, through the medium of which they have been proclaimed to the world. No public man to-day has more deeply studied American history and politics; none is more imbued with their spirit, in their higher aspects ”

“ As to the formerly hostile sections of the country, I am sure the number of those in the North who desire to keep alive old animosities for political purposes, or who think it politically profitable to do so, is daily growing less, and their influence on public opinion is decidedly declining. On the other hand, the wise and generous sentiment, that if we wish the South to be and remain loyal and patriotic, we must frankly and cordially recognize and encourage every evidence of loyalty and patriotism on its part, is every day becoming more emphatic and preponderant. ”

“ The German citizens of America may feet proud of the fact, that in some of the greatest emergencies of our history they stood firmly united as the best of Americans. At the time when the Republic was in danger, and the drum-call summoned to battle, the German element, as one man, was true to the Republic. And later, when the cause of honest money and of the public faith was at stake, the Germans stood solidly under the banner of sound doctrines, of the national honor, and honest government. ”

“ We have known him as the intimate friend of Charles Sumner, and are grateful that in the last, somewhat lonely, hours of that noble life, Charles Sumner had in Carl Schurz a friend in whose devotion and affection he could wholly trust; and we listened with gratitude to the voice which in Music Hall recounted the great services and defended the spotless fame of our own great Senator.
Those of us who have known all this have not found it necessary to examine very critically any charges against the fidelity of such a man. After observing such a career, we either know a man or we do not know him. ”

“ If the Republicans are wise, they will not ridicule the Democratic reformers, but take them at their word. If there is any insincerity in their movement, it will then show itself. To gain the advantage of the Democrats, the Republicans will have to prove that they are more sincere in the work of reform than their opponents. They can do so by taking up the work more vigorously; and I trust they will, for I know they can, having the largest reform element on their side.
I do not speak here merely has a party man, but rather as one who has an object of great public interest in view. ”

“ Perhaps it is natural for us, under the circumstances, to try to find a scapegoat; but it is hardly fair to choose our best citizens to bear the burden of our iniquities. Justice should be just on both sides. High character and eminent services have their rights; and among them is the right of not being pelted with hard names without convincing proof that they are deserved. We are much too good-natured toward those who deserve ill of the country, and we have fallen into a bad way of condoning vices, both public and private. ”

“ And thus I heartily thank you for this demonstration which, while conferring such extraordinary honor upon me, illustrates once more the living, active sympathy existing between those who advocate the cause of just and good government in any place, in any part of the country, and this grand old Commonwealth,—a leader in progressive ideas, whose monuments are upon so many battlefields of thought and of patriotic action. ”

“ The statesmen who are remembered with honor are they who respect themselves, respect the people, and on every issue urge the people to do what is just and magnanimous. Now, that is what our honored guest has done through all the twenty years of his public life. He has proved himself, during this long period of conspicuous public service, to possess in an eminent degree the intellectual powers and the moral qualities which are needed in an American statesman. ”

“ Independence of character! that sturdy, inflexible, and self-reliant force of will which enables a statesman to follow the dictates of his own judgment and conscience, in opposition to party passion or the fury of the multitude, if need be to his own injury; and highmindedness! that elevation of soul, founded on self-respect, which manifests itself in his avoidance of personal or petty altercations, in the whole tone of his public speech, and in his steadfast respect for the people. Universal suffrage engenders a peculiarly revolting kind of sycophant ”

“ That sentiment of sympathy for the oppressed, and of resistance to oppression, which always stirs the blood of Massachusetts, has at last awakened the conscience of this community; and, in the sudden and honest and indignant expression of that sentiment, grave injustice, as we believe, has been done to the man who, overlooking the whole field, and oppressed with the load of official responsibility, has been considering for months and years a problem of astounding difficulty, with a view to its solution on principles of justice and safety for the Indians. ”

“ Among those who have the public good in view, differences of opinion should not be permitted too easily to degenerate into impeachment of motives. You are certainly right in thinking that I could not possibly have spent four years of my public life in maliciously plotting the oppression of a poor Indian tribe. You may safely assume that no man at the head of the Interior Department, unless he be a corrupt and depraved wretch, will ever be inclined wilfuly to maltreat the Indians. ”

“ It can render inestimable service to the cause of good government by wielding the balance of power it holds with justice and wisdom, and from purely patriotic motives. Ours must necessarily be, in a certain sense, a government of and by political parties; but it will be all the better for the country if it is a party government tempered by an unselfish, enlightened, and patriotic independent opinion. ”

“ It is so cumbrous and overgrown an accumulation of heterogeneous subjects, all of importance; the interests in its care offer such attractions and temptations to those who strive to overreach the Government by dishonest means, and the branches of the public service under its control are scattered over an extent of ground so extremely difficult to watch, that is requires a long and intense application on the part of its head to understand its different branches and all the places of danger, and to master its machinery. ”

“ Very easily might a mass of evidence be spread before us, with testimony from documents, messages of Presidents, beginning with those of Washington, acts and resolves of Congress, schemes, appropriations, and all sorts of public measures devised by our Government and the constituency behind it,—all showing an honorable intention to treat the aborigines, as a whole and in their tribes, with mercy, humanity, and a lavish generosity. ”

“ While on the other side of the Atlantic we see England perplexed by the Irish problem,—that problem having assumed almost a revolutionary character,—and by a far-off war, rendered odious not only by occasional disasters, but still more so by the conscious injustice of its cause; while we see the nations of the European continent groaning under the terrible burdens of an armed and precarious peace, disquieted by social restlessness, political faction, and economic disorder ”

“ I certainly do not speak as a partisan, when I say that it is no sectional feeling which induces most of us to criticise and oppose political practices and theories which, with equal determination, we would criticise and oppose among ourselves,—such as encroachments upon the rights of voters, a dangerous financial policy, and the like; things detrimental to the principles of republican government, and to interests common to the whole country,—South as well as North. In the same measure as Southern men show that they are willing to respect the rights of others as their own are respected ”

“ It has always been, and is now, my opinion that the public interest is best served when each political party must depend for its success upon its own virtues, and not upon the shortcomings of its opponents. ”

“ One of the young men who then took the Liberal side, and of whom we thought very little, has come to this country to give us the model of all future officers of the Interior,—a man who at that time was ignorant of our language, every word of which is pronounced as it ought not to be pronounced, and every construction or which is entirely against all preconceived ideas; a man who had no knowledge of our government, or, what is quite as important, of our misgovernment,—he came hither and has done all this. ”

“ The invitation which has brought him here was signed by leading men of every party, sect, and way of thinking,—conservatives and radicals, statesmen, divines, men of business, men of literature,—representing every phase and form of the best Massachusetts life.
And why have these men asked Carl Schurz to meet us here? Because they consider him to stand prominent among the statesmen of this country for that which they most esteem and honor,—for purity in politics; for the best republican principles; for human progress ”

“ It not only tends to render the service itself untrustworthy, in point of integrity and efficiency, but also to make political contests more struggles for power than for the realization of ideas; and it enables and encourages public men to make themselves leaders of faction instead of leaders of opinion; to rule the politics of the country by the power of organization rather than by the power of ideas. ”

“ Those who can take such a position, and maintain it by sheer force of ability, integrity, and character, are surely our foremost men. They are not the leaders of factions; they are not even the recognized leaders of parties,—though that is an honorable and a lofty function: but they are the champions of great policies, and, if not the chiefs of parties, they are the natural leaders of men. There have always been such men in our politics, and there will always be need of them. ”

“ Twelve white persons certainly—some intelligent estimates assure us twenty—have died in battle, ambush, or torture, for every single Indian life that has been extinguished in the long-contested struggle between the races on this continent. And the cost of killing each Indian has been set at a million dollars. As to their extermination in this process, our most careful authorities tell us that there are as many Indians now on our so-called domain as there were when the whites first came. ”

“ And in exacting that condition the whites will claim that they follow the law of all civilized people, and even the law of Nature. The reason why no individual, tribe, people, or nation can assert and hold dominion over any portion of the high seas or ocean, is because no permanent occupancy or improvement can be set up there. All are free to course them or to fish them; but they have no owners. By the same test, however, in councils and treaties with tribes of Indians, our Government may have shammed a recognition of their territorial rights. ”

“ I venture to say that no inhabitant of this country can survey the condition of things in the world abroad without congratulating himself with pride and gratitude upon being an American citizen, and upon living in this great and happy republic. ”