Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/314

294 moral standard; that a loftier feeling of honor should be made to prevail; that the unprincipled mercenary be discouraged in his designs, and the purest and best elements of the people be again attracted to the political field. Think of this, and why should you not actively and vigorously help in pushing the movement of reform beyond the point which it has officially reached now—the point where high-sounding professions are made in high places to tickle the popular ear, while the old abuses are, without a blush, carried on in practice! Have you not every reason to be the most devoted advocates of a reform calculated to save you from the fangs of official rapacity, and restore to our political life once more the purity and high tone of the earlier and better days of this Republic!

And thus turn your eyes wherever you will, your own true interests, as well as those of the whole country—for they are but one and the same—call loudly on you to turn your backs upon the past; to face boldly and with manly resolution the problems and duties of the present and future, and to join hands with those who pursue the same ends of public good.

And who are they? About the relative position of the political parties now in existence, as well as the formation of a new party, I have frequently expressed my opinion, and recent events have rather confirmed than changed it. Viewing situations like ours in the light of history and philosophy, the following conclusion inevitably presents itself: When a republic, whose political institutions are based upon the self-government of the people, has passed through a civil conflict resulting in a great transformation of the social and political order, there are two things to be done. First, the results of that conflict are to be so fixed and fortified in the political institutions of the country as to be protected against reactionary