Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1871-1872, 1872-07-26

CABE and Others Committee.
-------
MR. SCRURZ md HIS GREAT SPEECH
The speech of Senator Schurz will long take
rank among the most animated and effective
harangues in modern political conflict. Long
as 1t was, we presume that it has been read
from beginning to end by tens of thousands
of persons without regard to political prefer
ences and we can easily believe the state
ment that the crowded audience which was so
| fortunate to hear it delivered hung in
| close and delighted attention upon the orators
accents 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
| a few years ago was an exile barely under
| standing our language and utterly unfamiliar
! with people. In the Senate of the
! United States he has repeated again
| and again the t1iumphs of parliamentary
| eloquence which used to illustrate the
] era of Clay, and Webster, and Calhoun.
| The chosen champions of orthodox Republi-
| canism-Conkling with his vulgar arrogance
| and his mean subseTvience to power, Morton
| with his narrow partsanism, the roaring
| Chandler and the comic Nye-may please for
| a moment the ruder occupants of the gal
| leries; but when Mr.. Scburz is to speak the
l
| highly cultivated in Washington life throng
the floor, and even our Legislators are COM
PEELED to listen. At the Capitol his gifts are
| partly wasted for it is notorious that speeches
have little effect inside the Senate or the House
| of Representatives but before his constituents
| or before the country the power of such a
| man is enormous. He is not a mere rheto-
| rician. His oratOry is not more remarkable
| for felicity of language and beauty of arrange
ment than for vigOr of thought, elevation of
| toHe, and clearness of statement. 1t is the
utterance of a man of firm convictions, quick
insight, broad views, and dignified purpose,
and commands respect for the evident siu-
| cerity of the speaker
Certainly the aims of the Liberal movement
| have never been so finely set forth as in the
| address which we reported yesterday. Mr..
Schurz showed there, in clear and well-chosen
language, free from the exaggeration of pas
sion, but colored with honest indignation,
that the Republican party, under the misman-
agement of President Grant and his obedient
servants, has become personal party abso-
&" lutely suhjugated to the interests of one in
" dividual." In the new morality of that party
every sin may be forgiven except the sin of
withstanding the Presidents will. Against
the wishes of the people the President
determined upon the acquisition of
Santo Domingo, and every Republic
can who opposed him was cast out of the
party as a hereto. The President chose TO
put Thomas Murphy into the Custom-house and
Leet into the General Order stores, and every
Republican who asked for a reformation of
the abuses of those establishments was pun
| ished to the full extent of the Presidents
power. The President insisted upon renom-
nation because, as he told Mr.. FQEney, a
single term would not pay; and to oppose that
was regarded in the Grant Conklng-
Morton clique the gravest offense that
a Republican politician could commit.
But meanwhile the Administration had
failed in ali the duties which fell
to it on the suppression of the Rebellion 1t
had plundered and irritated the South. 1t had
widened the chasm which it ought to have
closed. 1t had fostered the corruptions born
| of = long period of civil war. 1t had weak
eped constitutional restraints. 1t had strength
ened GEN. ralizing tendencies. It bad debased
the Civil Service. 1t had increased f5 an
enormous extern the abuses of patronage. 1t
had broken all its D. omises of reform. Yet to
support that AdministlS ton, cover its faults.
and vote for its perpetuatl.1n, was made the
test of political orthodoxy. lie Republican
| party thus came to mean nothing but Presi-
| uene Orant. Its success now would not be
the triumph of a principle, but the victory of
single man who has contrived to exact more
slavish service from clique of American
politicians than Louis Napoleon ever obtained
from his court of adventures and soldiers.
And what manner of man is he to whom
great party has bound itself in this extraor-
binary mannerf He does not mean to be a
| despot, says Mr.. Schurz. but he wants to have
his VIII. He took the Presidency, not as
| trust, but as gift. He thought it was a re-
ward for his military services, and he had a
night to make himself and his family as COM
Portable in it as he could. He is not pur-
poseiy an usurper, bordering how he may
snbvert the free institutions of the Republic
| Neither does he ponder how he may preserve
them. He does not ponder at all. He does
not mean to break down the authority of the
laws. He simply wants them not to hamper
] him In bis doings. He does not mean sys-