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more completely, more, ideally, I might add, represented in the Senate between the 4th of March, 1869, and the 4th of March, 1875, than I ever was before, or since have been. [Applause.] I to-day regard Mr. Schurz as incomparably the best equipped man in the country, of whom I have any personal knowledge, for effective and brilliant parliamentary life—I mean parliamentary life of the highest order. I, indeed, believe that could Mr. Schurz have been kept continuously in the Senate from 1869 to this day, as public men are kept in the House of Commons or the Reichstag, with experience thus added to aptitude, and the whole confirmed by that weight which comes only from seniority, our parliamentary annals would have contained another record not less memorable than those it accounts best; and, moreover, the influence exercised by him on the course of public events would have been as evident as it was beneficial. [Applause.] In this, probably, all here agree with me; and yet, neither singly nor acting in concert, could we at any time through all those years have given effect to our wishes. The political machinery presented obstacles not to be overcome. Tied hard and fast by law and tradition, the representative could not seek the constituency, nor the constituency go out to find the representative. It would not have been so in Great Britain; nor in France; nor in Germany. In America it was so then; it is so now; it bids fair long so to continue.
The result is that I am, as you are, nominally represented, it is true; but how? and by whom? I do not even know who my representative in Congress is. I must have voted for him; for at that election I voted
