Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume Three).djvu/540

 Mr. Schurz was deeply interested in this election. He was distressed to see the withdrawal of the Germans from the fusion, though he sympathized with them in their discontent with the excise laws; and for the radicals also he had the fellow-feeling of a man who had sacrificed much in standing for principle rather than for temporary political success. The radicals had high hopes of gaining his outspoken approval and support, but he eventually came out for the fusion. His speech at Cooper Union, on October 30, 1895, embodied probably the most definite and possibly the only clean-cut defense of opportunism, in the best sense, that he ever made. Addressing himself to the dissident reformers, he said:

“In the course of my life I have taken part in two great reformatory movements—that for the abolition of slavery, which has finally succeeded, and that for the reform of the civil service, which, I doubt not, is going to succeed. In working for these objects I have gathered certain experiences and learned certain lessons which our friends of the Good Government Clubs will permit me to lay before them.

“It is well to uphold high ideals before our own minds and the minds of others, and faithfully to strive for their realization. But if you cannot reach that realization at once, do not despise little steps and even roundabout ways that will bring you nearer to it, however slowly.

“When for the attainment of a good public object you need the aid and co-operation of a great many people, which you almost always do, you cannot afford to confine yourselves to only those who think exactly as you think and who are animated by exactly the same motives that you have. If you do, you will indeed form a very fine and select circle, but you will be apt to cut a poor figure at the polls, and fail to get the power by which to accomplish your good public object. It