Page:Schurz Birthday 32.JPG

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men, have made this celebration possible, and the offer of this homage by men known to all America, of all parties and of opposing opinions. [Bravo.] By him they will be received with greatful earnestness, I know, mixed with the sense of undergoing an ordeal. Encouragement he needs not, for nobody has known better than he and taught all his life that, though it suffice for the average man to do no wrong, he whose wagon was ever hitched to a star, looks at duty from an ideal point of view, unswerved by the inducements, motives or passions of smaller men. You know, Mr. Chairman, what Plutarch says of Aristides:

“Admirable was the mental equilibrium of the man in all changes of his public relations. He never prided himself on account of honors, and remained tranquil and self-possessed under provocations and insult. He always deemed himself under obligations to his country, and declared he owed it the same zeal under all circumstances, and worked for it without pecuniary advantage, or honor, or appreciation.”

Such was Aristides in Hellas, such is Carl Schurz in America. [Applause.]