Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 6.djvu/448

424 party out of the country. Now you will see that this operation, many times repeated, might at last leave Mr. Miles Lewis Peck of Bristol, Ct., on the ground, lonesome and forlorn, in desolate self-appreciation.

But it may also happen to you to find yourself sometime accidentally in the minority of the voters, and then, according to your rules, you would also be sent out of our beloved country, to the home of your forefathers. This, no doubt, would be very distasteful to you, and, I assure you, you would have my sincere sympathy. It would show you, however, how unstatesmanlike your theory is. Let us agree, then, that it is, after all, best for us to respect one another's right as good Americans to differ politically, and that this country is large enough to hold both Mr. Miles Lewis Peck of Bristol, Ct., and his humble fellow-citizen, &emsp; 



&emsp; I am very sorry I cannot comply with your kind invitation summoning me to speak at the meeting to be held in behalf of the cause of international arbitration. The appeals of that cause to the intelligence and moral sense of mankind have of late been so effectual as to put to shame the dreary pessimism which has so long stood in its way. For what else is it than downright pessimism—dull, dismal and mischievous pessimism—which, having no faith in the elevating influences of progressive civilization, insists that there always will and must be wars, and plenty of them, to satisfy the combative and brutish impulses of human nature or to keep up the virility of the human race; pessimism which, with a cynical affectation of superior wisdom, sneers at the advocates of peace as sentimental