Page:Addresses in Memory of Carl Schurz.pdf/45

 every upright man to lend himself with all his force to what he believed to be just and right. To the question, What is meant by the spirit of the age? he answered: “It is action, action, and action again.” Action, spirited action in behalf of the general welfare, action for the benefit not only of the American people, but of all mankind, was the text of his long, eventful, and strenuous life. Schurz never tired of battling for his convictions, against what he regarded as a hindrance to progress. Thus he became at an early age a revolutionist, struggling for the removal of political obstacles which, once accomplished, would open for the people, as he himself expressed it, new fields of inquiry, knowledge, and improvement, as a foundation on which to erect a solid structure of a broader and higher development. A fighter also he remained in this country, whose soil appeared to him so ideal a field for developing in absolute freedom all that is noble, progressive, and just in human nature.

The characteristic peculiarity of Carl Schurz consists in the great variety of objects for which he was struggling and the great diversity of weapons which he handled so skilfully. Thus did he fight for political freedom, for a constitutional government in Germany, with the most daring revolutionary methods; thus he fought, still far more successfully, in this country, in his capacity as general, diplomat, and politician, for his high ideals of democracy, and especially for the freedom of the negro; thus he fought as your Secretary of the Interior, and ever since that time for Civil Service Reform and the merit system; thus he fought for the protection of the Indian, whom he so ardently desired to lift to the level of American citizenship, and for the preservation of the forests, which he loved with all the sentiment of his German soul. Wherever dangers seemed to arise in the marvelously rapid development of American life, he came boldly before the public to warn and to admonish, even in the face of an overwhelming opposition, not only of the people, but also of his friends. And he was always listened to. Although in official position but a few years, and never in constant connection with either of the large parties, he was for half a century a powerful factor in the life of the American nation, untiringly and success-