Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/359

Rh softness of their consonants are better adapted to singing, but in no other language do people sing as much as in German and no other nation has given us so great a treasure of melodies that the people sing, songs of such deep feeling and of such virile force. Together with the mothertongue, the German Lied sprang from the German heart and it has made its way around the world. Whatever may resist German intellect and German enterprise—nothing can withstand German song.

We must be forgiven if, when speaking of our German mothertongue, we become a little sentimental, for that is not a sign of weakness. You may remember Heine's lines about the “sentimental oaks.” The German mothertongue is a treasure for every thoughtful person who possesses it, the value of which is to him much more than a mere matter of sentiment. We Germans like to hear honesty spoken of as one of the prominent traits of the German national character; and I, for my part, am particularly pleased when the better elements of the American people rely upon the support of German-Americans when questions about honest government and honest money arise. Pardon me for referring to such questions here; I do so only because honesty is also one of the principal characteristics of the German mothertongue.

Other languages, particularly the Romance, are distinguished for the refined and graceful elegance of their melodious diction. In these languages it is easy to say things that sound very pretty and that mean very little. In German that is more difficult. I would not imply that I consider it admirable, where a sign announces “German spoken here,” for one to be as rude as one pleases—I mean rather that an insincere or stupid thought expressed in German really sounds so. And if you say anything clever or graceful in German, you cannot make it sound any more clever than it really is. In other words,