Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 5.djvu/488

464 harpies will be lustily aided by the disreputable politicians who discover in the general disturbance a new chance for themselves, and who expect the loudest kind of war patriotism to lift them into popular favor and public place, trusting that everything will be forgiven to the “patriot” who is most vociferous in denouncing the enemy and most fiercely proclaiming that the war must not cease until the last fighting foe has bitten the dust. This is the class of “patriots” well fitted by old Dr. Samuel Johnson's robust saying, that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” And those who “love their country and mean to serve it faithfully” must not forget that true patriotism, while in time of war it has to fight the foreign enemy abroad, has to fight with equal vigilance and vigor false patriotism at home. For unless it do so with effect, the range and power of corrupt and degrading influences in our political life will be fearfully enlarged, and the progress of honest, safe and orderly methods of government may be set back for an indefinite period.

Can true patriotism possibly be eager to rush our country into war while there is a chance for honorable peace? 



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Dear Bayard: I cannot thank you enough for the cordial greeting you have sent me. Every word of it has done my heart good, and I need not tell you that it is all most sincerely reciprocated. I should have responded to it more promptly had I not thought it best to wait until I could be reasonably sure that my letter would find you at your home in Wilmington again.

If I can find the time for making you a visit I shall certainly do so. In fact, I long for it. But I am sorry