Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1881-03-25
Carl Schurz il Boston.

Carl Schurz IN Boston.
Boston, and consequently Massachusetts,,
as is generally known, is divided on the
question of the treatment of the Ponca In
dams. Senator Dawes holds that Mr.. SchurZ
held the Secretaryship of the Interior chiefly
for the sake of maltreating the Indians IN
general and the Poncas in particular and
many Bostonians agree with him. Many
others, however, holding Mr.. Schurz in
esteem for his political independence and
approval of civil service reform, have not
withdrawn their confidence from him on the
Indian question Some of them got up
dinner 10 Mr. Schurz, firstly as compliment
to him, and secondly as a rebuke to Mr..
Dawes and his followers. The dinner took
place at the new Hotel Vendome, in Boston,
Tuesday afternoon, and was decidedly an
elegant affair. Among those assembled 10
honor Mr.. Schurz were many Bos-
ton notables, though not many OF
the leading politicians OF tn
Bay State. President Eliot, Dr.. Holmes,
Mr.. Aldrich, Charles Francis Adams, Col.
Higginson, Rev James freeman Clarke,
John NJ. Forbes, and Charles Il. Goldman
were there. and some 200 more of the gentle
men of ..bue blood" and plcthoric wallets,
of the set who are sometimes irrevcrcntly de
scribed US parting their hair and their con
victions in The middle.
Mr.. Schurz had hearty welcome ami
made noticeable speech.
He said that the Interior Department Is
both the most intricate and the most danger
ons department of the Government at Is,
he said, "a cumbrous, ovcrsrown accumu,A-
ton of heterogeneous subjects all Of I'M
portance. The interests of its care offer
many attractions and temptations TO those
who strive TO overreach the government 10y
dishonest means, and the branches of public
service under its control are scattered over
an extent of ground extremely difficult to
watch. 1t requires, therefore, long and IN
tense application on the part OF IFS head to
understand its different branches and all the
places of danger, and To master IFS machin-
ery." Consequently, the secretary is entitled
to charity, and people should be careful how
they charge him with direct personal re
spopsibility for all the mistakes made in his
department. On the Ponca question he
said
You are certainly right in thinking that
could no. POSSIBLY have spent four years OF
my public life in maliciously plotting the op-
preston of poor Indian tribe. You may
generally assume that no man at the bead OF
the Interior Department, unless he be cor
rupt and depraved wretch, will ever be in
clined wilfully to maltreat the Indians. But
it may easily happen that those charged with
responsibility find themselves forced TO re-
sort to expedcnts of which those who direct
their attention only to one point of the intri-
cate problem do not appreciate the necessity
and bearing. and thus it happens that even
honest criticism, while trying TO be just to
one side, may become fagrantly unjust 10 the
other.
know that my conduct has grown from
Just and humane purposes and that my mai
urally kind feelings for the Indians have, 10y
direct intercourse with them, ripened into
personal friendship, and that that friendship
is reciprocated by most of the Indians with
whom | have had personal contact. l think
also that the policy followed by me during
my administration-th policy of promoting
the transformation of the Indians from shift
less paupers into thrifty and orderly workers.
as agriculturists, herdsmen, traders and
misunderstanding their educational IA
cilities, to teach them how to learn and how
to live, of stimulating their desire TO become
individual owners of lands and other prop
erty like white men; policy, in word,
of preparing them for their ultimate absorb
ton into the great body of American citizen
ship, with all its rights and duties, has been
as successfully carried on as four years Of
hard and conscientious work in the EXccu-
tive Department could make it, and that
a wise and vigorous pursuit of the same ends
will finally solve that Indian problem which
in the past has so often proved trouble,
and sometimes disgrace to the American
people.
After referring to the disturbed condition
of affairs in Europe in contrast with the peace
and prosperity everywhere evident i'll our
own country, Mr.. Schurz spoke of the de-
crease in the number of those who wish to
keep sectional issues alive, and reiterated
his heretofore expressed convictions in behalf
of thorough reform in the civil service. lie
devoted some thought to the independent
element in politics, which, he said, might be
defined as consisting of men who considered
it more important that the government be
well administered than what set OF men adj
minister it, and, concluding, said:
do not know of any period in our rcccbi
history so propitious for the trcatmcn, OF
public questions on their own merits and for
raFar,,osfn,, Of ayistipr abuses "a q =