Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/505

 His speeches and those of the typical Republican orators of that year were altogether different in temper. He was untouched by the partisan contagion. He assured his audiences that the situation was in no sense critical—that it demanded reason, not passion, in its consideration. He made no reference to the “rebel brigadiers”; he displayed no fear of the “solid South.” He paid high tribute to Hancock as a soldier and a patriot, for he had seen the General in battle and was not afraid to speak the truth. At the same time he set forth simply, dispassionately, but with a force that no intelligent and fair-minded reader of to-day can resist, his reasons for believing that the welfare of the country would be best promoted by the election of Garfield. That the value of Schurz's method was not ignored by the practical politicians at headquarters, is indicated by the statement of the secretary of the National Committee that about half a million copies of his speech at Indianapolis had been circulated, including the English and the German versions.

The success of Garfield was received with cheerfulness by Secretary Schurz, although he knew that it would be politically impracticable for him to be retained in the Cabinet. The intimate relations between the President-elect and Mr. Blaine would alone have forbidden the thought of continuance in office. On the 8th of March, 1881, Mr. Schurz retired from the Department of the Interior, amid rather unusual expressions of good will and affection from his subordinates in the service.

Two weeks later he was the guest of honor at a banquet in Boston, tendered by a group of distinguished men who desired to signify their high appreciation of his public services and also their special disapproval of the blundering attacks several Massachusetts men had made upon him. Such atten-