Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/98

72 tention and strife, how contentedly would he close them again, having beheld the greatness of his victories!

People of Massachusetts! he was the son of your soil, in which he now sleeps; but he is not all your own. He belongs to all of us in the North and in the South,—to the blacks he helped to make free, and to the whites he strove to make brothers again. Let, on the grave of him whom so many thought to be their enemy, and found to be their friend, the hands be clasped which so bitterly warred against each other! Let upon that grave the youth of America be taught, by the story of his life, that not only genius, power and success, but more than these, patriotic devotion and virtue, make the greatness of the citizen! If this lesson be understood and followed, more than Charles Sumner's living word could have done for the glory of America will then be done by the inspiration of his great example. And it will truly be said that, although his body lie mouldering in the earth, yet in the assured rights of all, in the brotherhood of a reunited people and in a purified Republic, he stills lives and will live forever. 



&emsp; . . . I need not tell you how highly I appreciate your friendly wishes with regard to my own fortunes. It is no affectation when I say that my own desire for a reëlection is not very strong. There are many reasons of a private nature why I should not wish it, and whatever the result of the impending campaign with regard to the Senatorship may be, there will be in it no disappointment of personal ambition as far as I am concerned. 