The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1876-05-17
sar. srnurz's Conference ana mr.
Schurz,s Address.

of thought or force OF expression. Had IL
appeared unheralded as leading article in
the Erening Post it would have attracted
little attention, and no other newspaper in
the country would have copied line Of it.
The great number of grandmotherly mid
wives called in to assist at its birth and the
Fictitious publicity given to the occasion
will probably secure for it an insertion in
most of the public journals of the United
States Mr.. Schurz has good eye for stage
effect, and if he had expended as much
intellect on the address as he has industry
in arranging his blaze Of calcium lights to
advertise and illuminate it, it might have
had a better chance of impressing the public
mind. Its ideas are just, but not new; and
when the same line of argument is repeated
for tho hundredth time it needs to be
ment to gain attention. We find nothing in
this address but the same old beaten story
of the corrupting effect of the spoils system,
which is correctly depicted as wrong, with
out that strength Of indignant denunciation
and glow of burning eloquence needed for
kindling public feeling, nor any suggestion
of remedies beyond the impotent one of
refusing to vote for bad candidates. And
yet this rather mediocre address is the sole
fruit and entire outcome of the assembled
wisdom of the Fifth avenue conference.
Such an array of midwives to give <cldt to SO
small q birth, ridiculous as it is in one
aspect has, nevertheless, its instructive side.
The instruction it conveys addresses itself
particularly to Mr.. Schurz, although it
comes rather late. The necessity he felt he
was under of organizing such a meeting
of notables in order to get attention to his
address is an implied admission that talents
alone, or eloquence alone, does not suffice
for making deep impression in politics with
out the adventitious influence of station. A
man who expects to gain the ear of q large
public must speak from pedestal, and the
natural pedestal for statesman is high off,
cial position. Mr. Schurz having become
mere private citizen, and wishing to secure
more attention than would be given to mere
argument and eloquence, sets himself at
work to get up meeting which may serve as
o substitute for commanding official station.
But how much more efficient and influential
he might have been if he had not broken
with his party and could speak with all the
authority of one of its foremost leaders In
stead of obtaining favorable hearing from a
small body of isolated and unorganized mall
contents he might have commanded the re-
spectful attention of the whole republican
party, o large portion of which would have
been predisposed to listen to him with
candor, if not appreciation. As one of
the recognized leaders of great
party he might have declared his
hostility to the spoils system with the GER
tainty of receiving an amount of co-opera-
ton compared with which the Endorsement
of meeting gotten up by himself is baga-
telle. Mr.. Schurz's frequent changes of
residence have precluded him from gaining
strong and attached local constituency;
his breach with the republican party de-
prives him of supporting connections; he
has accordingly become political estray, or
what we, in newspaper language, call
bohemian" and this kind of wandering
would be fatal to any public man less gifted
ency, without party ties, without fixed
residence, this accomplished man is like an
oft transplanted tree, whose roots never be-
come fixed in the soil, and, as 'Poor
Richard" says
never saw an on removed tree
Nor yet OFT removed family,
That throve go we'll as those that settled be-
This quaint admonition of our wise Frank
lin is as applicable to political as it is to
domestic life TO say nothing Of the dis
repute which attaches to the word carpet
Dagger" as indicative of political vagrancy.
it is mistake for public man to desert his
political party, except to cooperate in the
formation of a new one. In politics, as in
war, no man with capacity for large COM
mand should attempt to Eight on his own
hook" and lower himself into q mere cap
tain Of skirmishers But what is Mr. Schurz
but political skrmisher, now that he is
portance of making q figure in what Mr..
Charles Francis Adams yesterday called
'the floating vote of the country ?" In
military life such detached action will do for
small, uneasy spirits who lack capacity to
lead corps or division, but an accom-
plished soldier knows too we'll that distinc-
ton and importance are 10 be acquired only
in positions where concert, subor-
dination and discipline must be duly
regarded The same principle holds true
in politics, for the fundamental idea of
politics is associated action. Political re-
suits can be accomplished only by ma
jority but how can there ever be majority
without concerted action and more or less
surrender of private judgment? Mr.. Schurz
is outside the republican party, outside the
democratic party, and proclaims his inten-
ton to lead his select body of skirmishers
against either party if it presumes to go into
the fAld with commander-in-chief whom
no dceA not like. But which of the great