Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/117

Rh that its tenure is on good behavior, and that it can not and shall not be ruled by the wily arts of secret diplomacy. [Applause.]

I have heard it said that, in consequence of all this, the Republican party is a very difficult party to be managed—but nothing in the world can be easier, as long as the simple but great truth is kept in view, that the masses will remain true to the Republican party as long as the Republican party remains true to itself. [Great applause.] It was our conviction that if the Convention should fall into the fatal error of attempting to change the faith and policy of the party, as we would change our dress, it would quickly find out that the Republican party is essentially the party of independent men, that its power rests upon public opinion, and that it can do no wrong with impunity. [Cheers.]

With these ideas uppermost in our minds, we went into that Convention, determined to preserve in its purity the original idea upon which the party was founded; determined never to sell out the moral character and the great future of the Republican cause for the treacherous glitter of plausible combinations, brought about by trade and compromise; determined rather to risk a defeat than to lose our own identity in the chase after a delusive phantom of party success; in one word, determined to have a Republican platform, and upon it a Republican candidate. [Great applause.] I leave it to the people of Wisconsin to decide whether they were misrepresented by their delegates. [Cheers.]

By the partiality of our delegation, I was placed upon the committee on platforms and resolutions. The spirit which animated that committee was that the standard of Republicanism should not be lowered one single inch. [Great applause.] We endeavored to lift the creed of the party far above the level of mere oppositional policy.