CARL SCHURZ'S POLITICAL CAREER
volved in the movement, and these disturbing elements made themselves conspicuous from the outset. Against the spirit of intrigue and petty jealousy which they manifested, Schurz entered an eloquent protest. He was chosen permanent chairman of the convention and on May 3rd delivered an address which is probably unique in the annals of political assemblies. All the abundant resources of his oratorical faculty were applied to the purpose of holding his hearers to an exalted conception of their mission. After a perfunctory though eloquent denunciation of the administration and a eulogy of the reformers he warned these against methods of action that would imperil all they had gained. It will ruin the cause of reform forever, he declared, “if we attempt to control and use this movement by the old tricks of political trade, or fritter away our zeal in small bickerings and mere selfish aspirations. We must obey the purest and loftiest inspirations of the popular uprising which sent us here.” “No merely personal consideration, whether negative or positive, should be controlling. I earnestly deprecate the cry we have heard so frequently: ‘Anybody to beat Grant!’ There is something more wanted than to beat Grant.” Mere availability he begged the convention to leave out of account in their choice of a candidate; “superior intelligence coupled with superior virtue” must be sought. Not merely an honest and a popular man, but a statesman is needed. In seeking for such a man “let us despise, as unworthy of our cause, the tricky manipulations by which, to the detriment of the Republic, political bodies have so often been controlled.” Personal friendship and State pride, while noble, must be laid aside, he argued, for the sake of duty to the country and responsibility for its future.
In vain were these appeals addressed to the convention. The spirit they sought to exorcise ruled many of the delegates,
[ 343 ]
