Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/123

Rh Many of those who now surrounded him, had voted for other candidates in the Convention, and some, still laboring under a feeling of personal disappointment, had come there not without some prejudice unfavorable to Mr. Lincoln. But when they saw the man who had worked his way from the humblest station in life to his present eminence, not by fast speculations or adventurous efforts; not on the wings of good luck, but by quiet, steady labor, by unswerving fidelity to principle and his private and public duties, by the vigor of his genius, and by the energy of his character—the man who had won the confidence of the people and was now lifted upon the shield of a great national party, not by ingenious combinations and adroit management, but by the popular instinct—unfettered by promises, unpledged to anybody and anything but the people and the welfare of our country; his hands free to carry out the honest dictates of his pure conscience; a life behind him, not only above reproach, but above suspicion; a problem before him, for the solution of which he was eminently fitted by the native virtues of his character, the high abilities of his mind, and a strong, honest purpose;—then they all felt, that with this pure and patriotic statesman, all those great qualities would return to the White House, which makes republican government what it ought to be,—a government founded upon virtue. [Enthusiastic cheers.] And an Eastern delegate who had voted against him in the Convention, whispered to me in a tone of the highest satisfaction: “Sir, we might have done a more daring thing, but we certainly could not have done a better thing.” [Prolonged applause.]

I cannot find words strong enough to designate the silliness of those who sneeringly affect to see in Mr. Lincoln but a second or third rate man, who, like Polk and Pierce, had been taken up merely for the sake of expe-