Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/512

478 altogether as a class, but stimulate every germ of good there is in them; give those who are inclined to do right our generous encouragement; put a premium on good conduct and pay it promptly. Every payment thus made will prove a good investment, and as we approach the great consummation, many, many of our enemies will become willing to acknowledge that in being the true friends of the country we were their true friends and that whatever may have separated us in the past, common interest must bind us together in the future. Such a policy, far from endangering our ascendancy will only strengthen our moral power. It will not be a mere favor extended to rebels, but a service rendered to the people. There is no way in which harmony and peace and general prosperity can be better restored than by a policy calculated to identify the personal interests of the individual citizen with the common welfare and to enlist the energies of all in the common good.

My party friends, the great Republican organization to which we belong has, by its magnificent achievements, well deserved the power it now enjoys. But parties cannot live on reminiscences alone, however glorious. If the Republican party wants to preserve its ascendancy it must continue its usefulness; it cannot continue its usefulness unless it shows that it justly appreciates the requirements of the times and has the will and ability to provide for them. We must not continue to fix our eyes upon the party but turn them full upon the future. Our minds must not be absorbed by the passions and resentments sprung from the struggles which lie behind us, but be ready to grapple, untrammeled in their movements, with the problems which lie before us. These problems are manifold. We have to set our faces like flint against the corrupt practices which are poisoning our political life. We have to raise the standard of political morals by putting public trust