Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/206

182 dearly-won National unity, the emblem of a great past and a still greater future—of all these we are as proud as the proudest. We recognize our duties as citizens and joyfully fulfil them. Whenever our new country has called her sons to arms against foreign or domestic foes her German-born citizen has been among the first to rush to the defense of the flag and on the battlefield to offer his blood and his life to the common cause. On the roll of heroes and martyrs of the Republic, German names have never been wanting. In the domain of thought and in the workshop, the German mind and the German hand have toiled with diligence, and with abundant results; and we may well say that the soil of America has been enriched by the sacrifice of German blood and German labor. Whenever there has been a question of putting into practice those political rights which the new Fatherland has bestowed upon us with such generous liberality in order to serve the cause of justice, of liberty and honest government, we may well boast that the great mass of German-born citizens has always found its way into the ranks of those in whose hands the honor and welfare of the country was most secure. Temporary blunders may have been made, but there have been extremes to which not even the enticing voice of party spirit could allure the German-American citizen. Ask the political humbug and he will confess to you that the “German vote” has always given him much trouble and anxiety. Ask the true patriot and he will tell you that he confidently relies upon the sane and fair sense and the patriotic inspiration of the German-American citizen.

And more than this. However fervent may be the sympathy of the German-American with the fortunes, the aspirations and the struggles of the old home; however ardently his good wishes may follow all the enterprises of his old country, he never allows his sense of duty