Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/42

8 democracy is in a bad way. Here in America you can every day see how slightly a people needs to be governed. In fact, the thing that is not named in Europe without a shudder, anarchy, exists here in full bloom. Here are governments but no rulers—governors, but they are clerks. All the great educational establishments, the churches, the great means of transportation etc., that are being organized here—almost all of these things owe their existence not to official authority but to the spontaneous co-operation of private individuals. One has glimpses here into the productivity of liberty. Here you see a gorgeously built church; a stock company founded it. There a university; a wealthy man left a large endowment, which is its main capital, and the university is almost entirely supported by subscription. In another place you see an orphan asylum of white marble; a rich citizen built it. And so it goes with an endless list of things. It is only here that you realize how superfluous governments are in many affairs in which, in Europe, they are considered entirely indispensable, and how the possibility of doing something inspires a desire to do it. 



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In the first place let me tell you about the impressions of my trip. The journey from Philadelphia to Washington is rather monotonous, except the view of Chesapeake Bay, the crossing of several streams and the immediate vicinity of Washington. In approaching the city the attention is immediately arrested by some prominent objects, enormous marble buildings rising grandly above the smaller dwelling houses. Our first visit must,