Page:Visit of the Hon. Carl Schurz to Boston, March 1881.pdf/39

26 useful efforts the old Ponca quarrel may no longer divide us.

But as the Ponca question was not the whole Indian problem, so the Indian problem is only a small part of our national concerns. Our honorable chairman has touched upon many topics, and opened a large field; and you will pardon me if, for a moment, I follow him.

I venture to say that no inhabitant of this country can survey the condition of things in the world abroad without congratulating himself with pride and gratitude upon being an American citizen, and upon living in this great and happy republic. While on the other side of the Atlantic we see England perplexed by the Irish problem,—that problem having assumed almost a revolutionary character,—and by a far-off war, rendered odious not only by occasional disasters, but still more so by the conscious injustice of its cause; while we see the nations of the European continent groaning under the terrible burdens of an armed and precarious peace, disquieted by social restlessness, political faction, and economic disorder; while we see the assassination of an emperor spreading general consternation, and an uncertain, threatening future hanging over all Europe like a gloomy thunder cloud: while we observe all these portentous signs there, the only question which immediately troubles us is, whether we shall or shall not have an extra session of Congress to enable the Government to