Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/19

 It is rare that a life so picturesque and varied as Carl Schurz's can be so fully traced in its own records. He carefully prepared everything that he said or wrote, if for publication, and he usually preserved a copy or the draft. It was also his habit to save the letters he received. At all periods of his life in America some member of his family—Mrs. Schurz for nearly a quarter of a century—supplemented and arranged the collections. This material forms more than the basis of the now extensive and important Schurz papers.

Of his personal letters Mr. Schurz rarely kept copies, unless they touched some public or private question of special importance. Thanks to the all but invariable kindness and generosity of his surviving friends or their heirs, copies of many hundreds of his private letters have been made and preserved. A volume containing twelve of the best of his early speeches, 1858-64, was published by Lippincott in 1865; but it has long been out of print and is hard to find except in the largest libraries.

It has been the aim of the Editor to select for the present work what will best illustrate Mr. Schurz's political career his thoughts and acts as orator and reformer, diplomatist, Senator, Secretary of the Interior, and as publicist in the largest and best sense. Purely personal, journalistic and military matters have, as a rule, been excluded for lack of space or because not appropriate to the scope of these volumes. A few exceptions have been