Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/487

Rh willing to deny ourselves any opportunity for private advantage that may injuriously interfere with the public policy.

It demands that, while vigorously pushing the war, we should neglect no chance for an honorable peace, and that in making such a peace we should never tarnish the good name of our country by an unnecessary humiliation of the defeated enemy. It demands that while the war is going on we should strive to the utmost of our power to mitigate its horrors, to alleviate its miseries, and, last but not least, to counteract those agencies of demoralization and corruption which, while the excited public mind is turned to one single object, are apt to grow and flourish in extraordinary measure. And here we touch a chapter the importance of which the patriot who has the working of free institutions at heart will certainly not fail to appreciate.

It is in time of war, when the rush of events frequently makes the needs of the Government especially pressing, that the tribe of unscrupulous speculators bent upon cheating and robbing the public find most fruitful opportunities. They will always be seen and heard among the noisiest of “patriots,” in whose opinion no preparation is large enough, no action too quick and no measure too far-reaching. In the name of “patriotism” they will insist that all those safeguards in the government machinery which are to prevent fraud and theft be swept away as antiquated “red-tapeism” that obstructs the necessary vigor and promptness of action. In the name of “patriotism” they will seek to foist into places of trust and responsibility patriots of their own stripe to help them in their rascally game. In the name of “patriotism” they will strive to discredit and break down public men who have remained sufficiently cool to guard the public interest, as “not patriotic enough.” And this tribe of sharks and