59
“THE CIVIL SERVICE REFORMER.”
SPEECH OF MR. EDWARD M. SHEPARD.
It is a generous and seemly rivalry between my
predecessors to-night over the measure of public homage
due each of the citizens of whom they have spoken. I
enter the rivalry very sure that I shall convince you
that, high as the distinction is which must be accorded
to every one of them, a still larger homage is due still
another citizen of whom I shall speak. These righteous
and moderate tributes to which we have listened must,
indeed, all stand—that paid the memory of the young
and fearless German patriot of whom we first heard,—that
paid his competitor, the eloquent and unflinching
enemy of human slavery,—that paid his other competitor,
the disciplined and successful general,—that paid still
another, the statesman who helped to organize peace
and prosperity out of the ruins of war,—that paid still
another, the sagacious and intrepid Senator,—and that
paid still another, the trusted Cabinet Minister.
I pray all these citizens, honored guests of ours, to forgive me, however, if, at the risk of seeming ungraciousness, I ask them, each and every one, to yield place to him for whom I speak. Here, in truth, the last ought to be and is first. They and all of us must concede the true primacy among our guests to Carl Schurz, the wise, the determined, the persistent, the patient, the
