Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/429

Rh the least, not polite. It is not good manners. I doubt even whether it is good politics.

You must, however, not understand me as if I were at all disturbed by the “names” you call me. I am accustomed to that sort of thing at the hands of a certain class of politicians, and bear it with ease. Neither should you think that I wish to claim any standing in the Republican party. My way of looking at things will probably never have your approval; but I may, perhaps, succeed in making it intelligible to you. I believe that a party organization is not an end in itself, but merely a means for the attainment of public ends. I, therefore, do not worship a political party as a divinity entitled to my devotion under all circumstances, but regard it simply as an organization of citizens standing together for public objects on which they agree. I believe, and have always believed, that whenever such agreement on essential points ceases, and whenever a citizen becomes conscientiously convinced that he will serve the public welfare best by making, either temporarily or permanently, a change of party relations, it is not only his moral right but his duty to make it. Moreover, I believe that any doctrine to the contrary is highly dangerous to the integrity of free institutions.

It was as an anti-slavery man that I joined the Republican party. Untold thousands of citizens who had been life-long Democrats did the same thing, following the same principles. Were they “traitors”? When the abolition of slavery was accomplished and incidental questions decided, that which had mainly attracted me as well as many others to the Republican party existed no longer. Other issues pressed to the foreground. Among them, the questions of honest, efficient and economical administration of the Government—including civil service reform—of sound currency, and of an honorable, and at the same time conservative and pacific foreign policy, seemed