Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-07-23

Secretary schurE'- Speech,
Carl Schurz delivered a great political
speech ut indianapolis, Ind, on Tuesday
evening, which is of special interest as COM
ing from member of President Hayess cab
met and man of the well known independ-
ence and ability of the great German orator
and statesman. The speech is calm and dis
passionate in tone, candid and clear in state
ment, and will tend to make plain the path
Of right and duty to the befogged and hesitat-
ing voter.
The Secretary begins by saying that the
great need and demand of the country is
good government, and then devotes himself
to a specification of what the Republican par
ty has done in that direction. He does not
claim for President Hayess administration nm
immunity from mistakes and shortcomings
but says il has pursued the right direction
and done well, -that under its authority the
revenues have been collected and disbursed
with increased care and integrity; that the
general tone of the public service has been
elevated; that, while certain reforms have
not been carried so far as they should have
been, important progress has been made /;
that its financial policy has been wise and of
great benefit to the country and that in its
Southern policy it has removed many obsta-
Giles which stood in the way of friendly un-
Outstanding between the different sections Of
the country and different classes of people.
The Republican party, if continued in power,
may be expected to continue to work in the
same wise and benefcent direction.
What, on the other hand, asks the Secreta-
ry, may be expected Of the Democratic party
if it should be victorious and with q merci
less finger he points out the manifold errors
of that party in the past, to show how little
reason there is TO expect from it better adj
ministration of affairs than the Republican
party has given us. What, he asks, have we
to gain from Democratic victory? Is il
the maintenance Of the public faith 2 But il
is a notorious fact that all the elements hos
tile to the constitutional discharge Of our ma
tional obligations are gathered under the
Democratic banner, and that nearly all the
States that have repudiated their debts are
Democratic States. Is it a sound financial
policy But we find that the Democratic
party has irresistibly attracted to its fold a
large majority of Greenbackers, infationists
and fiat money men, and that whatever it
may say in its national platforms, it contin-
ues to put forward leaders of this class for
the highest honors in a large number Of
States. As TO the civil service. at all events,
we know what would follow a Democratic
victory 1t would be reform consisting OF
a clean sweep of all Republican officeholders
and the placing of Democrats in their places.
This is not a question, as some appear to
consider it, of replacing officials Of one party
by equally well fitted officials of another. But
it is an immediate and simultaneous disturb
ance of every department Of government by
substituting raw hands for trained and skilled
public servants, a removal of the carefully
devised guards which are now placed over
the public money and its use, and the sudden
distribution of seventy or eighty thousand
places of trust, responsibility and power rs
spoils among the hosts of the victorious par
ty Such reform, Mr. Schurz remarks,
would be one to make the "ears of the tax
payers Jingle"
On the other hand, Mr.. Schurz asserts that
while the Democratic party has been attract
ing the reputation and dishonest money ele-
ments, the Republican party has been con-
verting them 10 sound doctrine or expelling
them that it is the protector of the national
faith and the party of sound money, and that
all practical hopes of permanent reforms in
the civil service are linked with its history,
and all the advocates of them are on its side.
He appeals to the conservative citizens of the
Republic, 10 those who desire the public faith
sacredly maintained, to those who desire TO
preserve the fruits of the success gained in
the abolition Of an irredeemRble paper cur
rency and the restoration Of specie payments,
to those who desire the government perform
ed in business-like way by honest and capa-
bic public servants, and asks them if they
will 60 to the Democratic party, which has
opposed all these things or the Republican
party, which has identified itself with them.
A strong point in the speech is the picture
of the plight Hancock would be in il he
should be elected. without experience in
civil affairs, with no fixed ideas on any ques-
ton of public policy, and no record of eH-
pressed opinions to guide him, he would be
beset by all the motley clements which make
up the Democracy, each clamoring for recog-
milton. A striking contrast is also drawn be-
tween Gen. Hancock, the man without civic
training and without known opinion on any
question likely TO come before the admins
tration, and General Garfield tho wise, con-
sistent statesman, whose record is long and
broad and plain, covering every contested
point of governmental policy.
1t would seem as though no thoughtful,
candid man, having the good of the nation
at heart, after reading Mr.. Schurz's speech
as published in the daily papers, could fail to
acknowledge the cogency of his reasoning.
and to see that, despite the similarity of their
professions and the high character of their
leading nominees, the two parties, in their
animus and composition, arc still as widely
separate as in the days when the one stood for
loyalty, liberty and union, and the other for
slavery, disunion and disgrace.
HancOek'a Proposed Coup dEtat.
The Defamer, while admitting that Mr.
II.