blood. But, sir, speaking from the shadow of that memory, which I honor as I do nothing else on earth, I say that the cause in which he suffered and for which he gave his life was adjudged by higher and fuller wisdom than his or mine, and I am glad that the omniscient God held the balance of battle in His almighty hand, and that human slavery was swept forever from American soil-the American Union saved from the wreck of the war. Now what answer has New England to this message? Will she permit the prejudice of war to remain in the hearts of the conquerors, when it has died in the hearts of the conquered? Will she transmit this prejudice to the next generation, that in their hearts, which never felt the generous ardor of conflict, it may perpetuate itself? Will she withhold, save in strained. courtesy, the hand which, straight from his soldier's heart, Grant offered to Lee at Appomattox? Will she make the vision of a restored and happy people, which gathered above the couch of our dying captain, filling his heart with grace, touching his lips with praise, and glorifying his path to the grave; will she make this vision, on which the last sigh of his expiring soul breathed a benediction, a cheat, and a delusion? If she does, the South, never abject in asking for comradeship, must accept with dignity its refusal; but if she does not -- if she accepts with frankness and sincerity this message of goodwill and friendship, then will the prophecy of Webster, delivered in this very Society forty years ago, amid tremendous applause, be verified in its fullest and final sense, when he said: "Standing THE SPOILS SYSTEM 169 hand to hand and clasping hands, we should remain united as we have for sixty years, citizens of the same country, members of the same government, united all, united now, and united forever." THE SPOILS SYSTEM CARL SCHURZ The following extract is taken from an address delivered at the annual meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League at Chicago, Ill., December 12, 1894. What Civil Service reform demands, is simply that the business part of the government shall be carried on in a sound, business-like manner. This seems so obviously reasonable that among people of common sense there should be no two opinions about it. And the condition of things to be reformed is so obviously unreasonable, so flagrantly absurd and vicious, that we should not believe it could possibly exist among sensible people, had we not become accustomed to its existence among ourselves. The spoils system, that practice which turns public offices, high and low, from public trusts into objects of prey and booty for the victorious party, may without extravagance of language be called one of the greatest criminals in our history. In the whole catalogue of our ills there is none more dangerous to the vitality of our free institutions. It tends to divert our whole political life from its true aims. It teaches men to seek something else in politics than the public good. It attracts to active party politics the worst elements of our population, and with them crowds out the best. It perverts party contests from contentions of opinion into scrambles for plunder. By stimulating the mercenary spirit, it promotes the corrupt use of money in party contests and in elections. It takes the leadership of political organizations out of the hands of men fit to be leaders of opinion and workers for high aims, and turns it over to the organizers and leaders of bands of political marauders. It creates the boss and the machine, putting the boss into the place of the statesman, and the despotism of the machine in the place of an organized public opinion. It does more than anything else to turn our large municipalities into sinks of corruption, to render Tammany Halls possible, and to make the police force here and there a protector of crime and a terror to those whose safety it is to guard. It exposes us, by the scandalous spectacle of its periodical spoils carnivals, to the ridicule and contempt of civilized mankind; and, in an endless variety of ways, it introduces into our political life more elements of demoralization, debasement, and decadence than any other agency of evil I know of, perhaps more than all other agencies of evil combined. KNIGHTS OF LABOR 171 KNIGHTS OF LABOR TERENCE V. POWDERLY The following extract is taken from a speech delivered in Richmond, Va., October, 1886, in response to an address of welcome to the Knights of Labor, delivered by General Fitzhugh Lee, then Governor of Virginia. The Governor was selected to welcome the delegates to the General Assembly of the Knights of Labor, and Mr. Powderly, as General Master Workman of the Order, made the following response to the Governor's address. We are Knights of Labor because we believe that law and order should prevail, and that both should be founded in equity. We are Knights of Labor because we believe that the thief who steals a dollar is no worse than the thief who steals a railroad. To remedy the evils we complain of is a difficult and dangerous undertaking. The need of strong hearts and active brains was never so great as at the present time. The slavery that died twenty-two years ago was terrible, but the lash in the hands of the old-time slave owner could strike but one back at a time, and but one of God's poor, suffering children felt the stroke. The lash of wealth in the hands of the new slave owner falls not upon one slave alone, but upon the backs of millions, and among the writhing, tortured victims, side by side with the poor and the ignorant, are to be found the well-to-do and the educated. The power of the new slave owner does not end when the ordinary day laborer bends beneath his rule; it reaches out still further, and controls the mechanic, true. It the farmer, the merchant, and the manufacturer. dictates not alone what the price of labor shall be, but regulates the price of money as well. Do I overestimate its power? Have I made a single misstatement ? If my word is not sufficient, turn to the pages of the history of to-day,-the public press, and you will find the testimony to prove that what I have said is The lash was stricken from the hand of the slave owner of twenty-two years ago, and it must be taken from the hand of the new slave owner as well. The monopolist of to-day is more dangerous than the slave owner of the past. Monopoly takes the land from the people in million-acre plots; it sends its agents abroad, and brings hordes of uneducated, desperate men to this country; it imports ignorance, and scatters it broadcast throughout the land. While I condemn and denounce the deeds of violence committed in the name of labor during the present year, I am proud to say that the Knights of Labor, as an organization, is not in any way responsible for such conduct. He is the true Knight of Labor who with one hand clutches anarchy by the throat and with the other strangles monopoly. The man who still believes in the "little red schoolhouse on the hill" should take one holiday and visit the mine, the factory, the coal breaker, and the mill. There, doing the work of men, he will find the future citizens of the Republic, breathing an atmosphere of dust, ignorance, and vice. The history of our country is not taught within these walls. The struggle for independence and the causes leading to that struggle |