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in and since the Reconstruction days—where the public welfare seemed to him to be involved.
Mr. Storey, in his address, covered the term of Mr. Schurz's service in the Senate, to which he was sent by the State of Missouri in 1869. This, he stated, was a period of reaction, when the problem of reconstruction was not the only vexing thing but when the intense earnestness that characterized the national struggle had yielded to a feeling of ease and careless content on the part of the people, and a disposition to leave the settlement of all minor questions blindly to the victorious heads of the government. It was then that the complete demoralization of the civil service was threatened, that inflation so nearly triumphed, and that public scandals of so many sorts demanded investigation and exposure. The Senate, on which depended in so great a measure the determination of the new issues and policies, had commenced to lose in character. Sumner, Fessenden and Trumbull—whose nearest parliamentary associates Mr. Schurz at once became—remained, with a few others of the same stamp, but the proportion of new-comers was great, and among these the “carpetbag” contingent from the South, and a more selfish political element from the North, seemed to predominate. Mr. Schurz quickly became recognized as one of the conservative forces in this body, as the best equipped debater, an orator second to none, a constant champion of every measure that made for right, and the consistent
