Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/45

Rh You ask me why I did not address my inquiries about alleged corrupt practices first to the Democrats. The reason is simple. I did not step forward in this matter as a volunteer. Nor did I go about seeking whom to investigate. That is not an occupation to my taste. I did address you, because, and only because, I found myself publicly called upon by an apparently authorized friend of yours to do so. If such a call had come from the Democratic side, I should have considered it a duty to obey it in the same manner and in the same spirit.

I write this not with any expectation of changing the resolution you have formed, but to show that the step I took in addressing you was respectable in character and might well have been met on a different level. 



&emsp; I thank you sincerely for your letter of the 13th instant inviting me to meet with you on the anniversary of the first inauguration of President Washington; but I regret to say that my engagements here do not permit a journey to Chicago at the present time.

We cannot worthily commemorate the practical beginning of our Constitutional government without doing homage to the man who was the first and highest illustration of its character. Popular hero-worship is to be commended and encouraged when it consists in the admiring contemplation of conspicuous virtue and wisdom. The memory of George Washington is, and will always remain, one of the most important and precious possessions of the American people.

Inestimable as were his services in the War of Independence, yet history tells us of other great generals whose