The Portland daily press., 1884-10-24
Mr.. Schurz in Boston

Hon. Carl Schurz spoke in Boston on
Wednesday night to large audience of the
''mugwumps" of that cranky town. He
did Boston the honor of delivering there
substantially fresh speech, differing from
| that delivered in Brooklyn several weeks
ago, and evidently prepared with special
reference to the pecCliar condition of Massa-
chusetts politics. AS political grafton it is
won ,erful example of rhetoric ard elo-
| queuce which one may admire for it's
beauties OF composition without subscribing
| to its conclusions, as men who hated the
| principles aVowed by Wendell Phillips we're
| fascinated by the splendor of his speech and
would never miss an opportunity to expert
ence the spell of bis marvellous powers OF
expression. Anybody may hold what
| opinion he chooses of Mr.. Schurz's sound
ness of judgment or sincerity of motive; but
/ it is very foolish to attempt TO deride his
ability and accomplishments as an orator !;
and al hough he appears destined to fail in
his effort to defeat the election of Mr..
Blaine, as he failed in his attempt to defeat
| the second election of General Grant. il is
nevertheless true that he is by all odds the
most powerful and dangerous advocate of
the Republican rebels.
In the course of bis address Mr. Schurz
called to mind an incident in the career of
George Washington, which is of so much
in crest that it deserves to be widely known:
| will read one more letter from George Washing
| ton. on an occasion when he was asked about his
| r5a,o t. -,
| 1795, when Edmund Randolph of Virginia had
been obliged to leave the cabinet under suspicious
circumstances, and when for the purpose OF vindi-
| eating himself, he had attempted to throw some
/ suspicious upon the administration of General
Washington. He had been asking for papers, and
General Washington wrote to him thus at Philadel-
| phia, on the 2lst of October, 1895:
That you may have no to complain of the
withholding of any paper. however private conf
so serious nature, have directed you should have
| the inspection of my letter OF the 22d of Juiy,
agreeable 70 your request and that you are at full
| liberty to publish withou reserve any and every
private and oonfiden ial letter | wrote to YOU
| Nay, more every word ever uttered to you or in
your hearing from whence you can derive any ad-
| vantage in your yindcation L grant this permis-
sion, iuasmuch as the extract al uded to manifesy
| intends to impress upon the public mind All opinion
| that something hts passed between us that you
| would disclose with reluctance with respect to me.
| Then, in another letter. of which draft was
found amoag General Washington's papers, which,
however, was finally suppressed by him, because he
did not think it necessary, he wrote as follows:
For the last time, repeat in the most unequivo-
cal terms, that you are at full liberty to publish
everything that ever passed between us written or
| oral, that you think will subserve your purpose. A
conscious rectitude and the unvariabe endeayor to
| promote tho hon +, welfare and happiness of this
country bS every means in the power of the Execu-
| tive ana within the compass of my abilities leave
no apprehension on my mind from any disclosure
| whatsoever.
OF cou Sc, Mr.. Scdurz made use Of this
incident as a rnetorcisn whose motive was
to dscredit Mr.. Blame might bo expected
to do; and of course he did not remind his
| audience that when batch of Mr. Blaine's
private letters was recently given to the
public by his enemies, with the design of
doing him an Injury, message was prompt
ly telegraphed to the county from Mr..
Blaine, desiring that every journal friendly
to him should give publicity to the full cor
respondence, which he said contained moth
ing inconsistent with the highest integrity.
In this matter, does it not appear that Mr..
Schulz was guilty of the suppression of a
fact which it would have been right and fair
to make known? Even If he thinks Mr..
Blaine was not sincere in expressing such a
desire it would have been more just to SUBJ
NIT the whole truth to the judgment of bis
audience.