CARL SCHURZ'S POLITICAL CAREER
called upon to resent an allusion to his foreign birth. In the winter of 1880-81 Senator Dawes, in the course of a sharp criticism of certain summary measures in dealing with troublesome Indians, ventured upon the same kind of attack that Blaine had employed four years earlier. “It has been a relief to me” said Dawes, “in examining our treatment of these weak and defenseless people to find that these methods are not American in their origin, but bear too striking a resemblance to the modes of an imperial government carried on by espionage and arbitrary power. They are methods which I believe to be unique and which I trust will not be naturalized.” The opening afforded by this rather ill-advised allusion was too attractive to be neglected by such a master of irony as Schurz. In an open letter to Dawes the Secretary, after quoting the foregoing words, retorted:
“You have succeeded in making yourself understood. From the Pequot war to our days there never was an Indian unjustly killed in this country until a German-born American citizen became Secretary of the Interior. All has been peace, love and fraternity. The red man has for three centuries reposed securely upon the gentle bosom of his white brother, and no man to make him afraid, until this dangerous foreigner in an evil hour for the Republic was clothed with authority to disturb that harmonious accord and to disgrace the American name with espionage in Indian camps and the blood of slaughtered victims; and all this he did in an effort to naturalize on American soil the dark and cruel methods of imperial governments, of which this foreigner notoriously is, and has always been, a faithful and ardent worshiper and champion. And ‘it is a relief’ to your patriotic soul that there is hope this wicked naturalization scheme will never succeed. It is pleasant to reflect that there is one man at least among us who even under
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