New-York tribune., 1872-07-24
MR.. SCHURz And HIS GREAT SPEECH

Inc speech OF senator Carl SCnuTZ, WHICH
we published in full yesterday, will long take
rank among the most animated and effective
hsrangues in modern political conflict. Long
as it was, we presume that it has been read
from beginning to end by tens of thousands
o. persons without regard to political prefer
eices and we can easily believe the state
nent that the crowded audience which was so
brtunate as to hear it delivered hung in
dose and delighted attention upon the orators
sccents until the very close. For no public
speaker now in political life in this country
so closely rivets the interest of his hearers as
this brilliant Senator from Missouri, who only
hw years ago was an exile barely under
stnding our language and utterly unfamiliar
with our people In the Senate of the
Uhted States he has repeated again
ard again the triumphs of parliamentary
eluuence which used to illustrate the
err of Clay, and Webster. and Calhoun.
Tie chosen champions of orthodox RepubE-
caiism-Conkling with his vulgar arrogance
and his mean subservience to power, Morton
with his narrow paItisanism, the roaring
ChaIiler and the comic Nye-may please for
a mment the ruder occupants of the gal
|slerie; but when Mr.. Schurz is to speak the
representatives of all that is best and most
high5 cultivated in Washington life throng
the Ioor, and even our legislators are COM
pelleI to listen. AT the Capitol his gifts are
pard, wasted, for it is notorious that speeches
hav,little effect inside the Senate or the House
of representatives but before his constituents
or hfore the country the power of such
| mans enormous. He is not mere rhetO-
ricia. His OratOry is not more remarkable
| for flicity of language and beauty of arrange
| ment than for vigor of thought, elevation of
tone,and clearness of statement. 1t is the
uttennce of a man of firm convictions, quick
insigt, broad views, and dignified purpose,
and ommands respect for the evident sin
cerity the speaker.
Cerainly the aims of the Liberal movement
have lever been so finely set forth as in the
addres which we reported yesterday. Mr..
Schur showed there, in clear and well-chosen
Language, free from the exaggeration of pas
sion, INT colOred with honest Indignation,
that tn, Republican party, under the misman-
agemen of President Grant and his Obedent
servant, "bas become personal party absO-
lutelysubjugated to the interests of one in
| IL.
every sii may be forgiven except the sin of
withstaming the Presidents WILL Against
the wiaes of the people the President
determined upon the acquisition of
Santo Domingo. and every Republi-
can who opposed him was cast out of the
party as n heretic The President chose to
put Thomas Murphy into the Custom-house and
| I eet iato the General Order stores and every
Republican who asked for reformation of
the alGses of those establishments was pun
ished to the full extent of the Presidents
power The President insisted upon renom-
inatio because, as he told Mr. Forney, a
singleterm would not pay; and to oppose that
was regarded in the Grant-Conkllng-
Mortoi clique the gravest oflense that
a Republican politician could commit
| But meanwhile the Administration had
failed in all the duties which fell
to it IN the suppression of the Rebellion. II
had phndered and rritated the South 1t had
yidend the chasm which il ought to have
closed. 1t had fostered the corruptions born
of lmg period of civil war. 1t had weak
ened constitutional restraints. IL had strength
ened c.ntralizing tendencies IL had debased
the Civil Service. 1t had increased to m
enormous extent the abuses of patronage. II
had bpken all its promises of reform. Yet to
support that Administration, cover its faults
and y,te for its perpetuation, was made th'
test Il political orthodoxy. The Republican
party .hus came 10 mean nothing but Presi
| dent Grant. lts success now wouid not D'
\ tba tri,mph of n principle but the victory oil