Carl Schurz

“ Now they are angrier still, for the movement has become a recognized power. It has gradually dictated legislation, and the party managers have to think of it when planning the campaigns. [Applause.] Some of them may still imagine that those engaged in it can be amused with the mere semblance of reform in a narrow circle, permitting the spirit of the spoils politics to rule in reality. This is a mistake. The reform movement has come to stay, nor will it cease to advance until all its purpose is accomplished. ”

“ An excisiveexcessive and selfish party spirit is an evil. Public questions should be treated upon their own merits, and not with a view to mere party advantage. The Government is to be of the people and for the people, and not the mere instrument for the selfish exercise of party power. [Applause.] Public service is to do the business of the people, as prescribed by law, and not to become a mere party machine. [Applause.] The offices of the Government are places of trust and responsibility, and not mere patronage or spoils of party warfare. ”

“ From those principles American politics have in the course of a century gradually drifted away until the contests between and within political parties has acquired largely the character of scrambles for spoils, and until the management of the patronage has threatened to become the principal business of American statesmanship. Now at last the reaction has set in, and the American people, becoming sensible of the mischief and depredation, are beginning to work their way back to the Washingtonian rules. This is the real meaning of the civil service reform movement. ”

“ As to the real element of the strength upon which Republican success depends, the real element of strength is in the popular belief that the party, at least in the North, contains a strong preponderance of the popular intelligence, education, and virtue, [applause;] that this element will ultimately shape its ends, policy, and conduct; that the integrity of the Government is therefore, on the whole, the safest in its keeping, and that it is the natural party of reform, whenever and wherever reform is necessary. ”

“ It could scarcely be otherwise, and it requires not the zeal of a reformer, but only the instinct of an experienced party man to perceive that the Republican candidate will be the stronger the less he resembles the spoils politician. [Great applause.] If the Republican Party wants to command all the active support which it needs for success, its candidates should be, not only as far as the letter of the law commands, but men whose character, record, and political associations will be a guarantee that, if intrusted with power, they will lead and not merely follow the movement. ”

“ The American people are singularly fortunate in the fact that the first President of the Republic was as perfect a model of a Republican Chief Magistrate as can be in the history of any age and any country. ”

“ The political managers will strive in vain to keep them there. Honest logic is a tremendous power with candid minds. How far the reform movement has already taken possession of the people is indicated by a significant fact. Even men and journals that have no sincere sympathy with it are becoming accustomed to pay it a remarkable tribute. When they want to express their highest commendation of an appointment or a removal, what do they say? “This is in direct accordance with civil service principles.” ”

“ A candidate may command the support required, the strength of the party, even its enthusiastic support, and yet be defeated. For he will need more than that. He will need the active power of those Republicans who have grown more or less indifferent to the fortunes of the party as such. He will need a considerable reinforcement from those who, standing aloof from party, merely want to have certain things done for the public interest, and truly deliberate as to the success of which party will be most likely to bring them about. ”

“ And the third phase is the growth upon men's minds of the imperative conclusion that the spoils system can be eradicated only by the establishment of another system, completely divorcing the public service from party politics — [applause] — the system of appointment on the ground of fitness, promotion for merit, and removal for cause — which is, I repeat, for it cannot be repeated too often, the restoration of the principle and practice of the Washingtonian Administration. A good many of our fellow-citizens may still be in the first stage, but if they are they are sincerely. ”

“ The Republican Party has always in great part resembled an army of volunteers, in this State, for the campaign, rather than an army of regulars hired for whatever service may be required of them. [Applause.] Enthusiasm for a good cause has always been its principal element of strength. ”

“ The best men are at this time the most available men. When the nominations are made it would be melancholy and discouraging indeed if the highest praise of them were “The party might have done worse.” ”

“ They constitute what is called the independent party. The number of voters who care very little for party success is at this moment larger than it has ever been for two generations. This is undoubtedly in a great measure owing to the fact that the identification of parties with great and existing questions is not what it was 10 or 15 years ago. People have become cooler, more critical, more easily dissatisfied; more inclined when much displeased to teach their own party a lesson. ”

“ By this belief many of the patriotic citizens have been kept attached to it, although their opinions on some important points of policy differ from those of the majority of its members — men, I mean, to whom the cause of administrative reform is supreme, because they think that if that reform in its best sense is thoroughly accomplished it will impart a new intellectual and moral life to the working of our institutions, facilitating the treatment of other problems on their merits and produce far-reaching results of a permanent character. ”

“ With that enthusiasm it is almost irresistibly strong; without it, it is sometimes surprisingly weak. It has always contained a very large number of men determined to do their own thinking, and rather disposed to balk and kick whenever an attempt was made to drive them. ”

“ You can hear or read this every day, even in the slang quarter. No, this movement cannot be stopped. It has already furnished a popular standard by which official action is judged. It is gradually working itself into the habitual ways of thinking of the people. ”

“ There was no organized voting movement, but the Republican voters quietly permitted a Republican candidate for Governor, who is certainly a very respectable man, to be defeated by nearly 200,000 majority. ”