St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-04-30
Carl Schurz at Boston.

The Massachusetts reform club gave
dinner at Parker's Friday to the
Hon. Carl Schurz. AS it was the first
notable gathering of independents
since the change in administration, the
utterance on the occasion is of more
than ordinary Importance. The COM
pany included many of the prominent
"mugwumps" of Massachusetts, and
several distinguished men invited were
not present. George William Curtis
wrote regrets:
81 am always sorry to lose any Occa-
sion of testifying my friendship and
high respect for your distinguished
guest, to whom the cause of patriotic
politics and of honest reform in this
country is SO deeply indebted. No
man advocates it more eloquently upon
! the platform no man in public Office
has illustrated it more faithfully than
he. All honor to the man, the patriot,
the statesman"
Our limited space will not allow Mr..
Schurz's address in full, but we hope
to give enough of it to show that the
independents stand on a broad plat
form, with their feet well under them
THE PROGRESS MADE.
When men interested in the cause of
reform meet now IA days, they do so
with the satisfactory feeling that they
can report progress and a good deal of
it, too. l say good deal of it, too,
but not at all enough to permit you to
rest upon your oars. (Applause.) How
much watchfulness, how much work
may still be required, how many efforts
to enlighten public opinion upon this
great theme, was recently illustrated
by very curious and characteristic oc
currence. 1t was this:
THE APPOINTMENT OF PEARSON.
The president of the United States
took it into his head to appoint "a post
master who had proved to be an eX-
ceedingly efficient public servant, but
was not of his own party. This Oc-
currence created an immense excite
ment all over the United States. The
politicians in every part of the land
were in a cOmmOtiOn at once. Let me
say, by the way, that this is probably
the only civilized country on the face
of the globe where the appointment
of very efficient and capable public
officer would be looked upon as any
thing extraordinary. In any other
civilized land, am sure, it would be
taken not only as a proper, but as a
natural thing. In this respect, this
great republic enjoys proud, exclu-
sive and by no means very creditable
distinction. | say the excitement over
the occurrence was immense. The old
fashioned partisan mind could not
bring itself to believe it at all. 1t
could not be that "A democratic presi-
dent should appoint republican post
master for no other reason than that
that postmaster had shown himself an
exceedingly good officer, most capable |
of serving the public interest. Why, |
the Old-fashiOned partisan spirit could
not conceive of it. So then it cast
about for an explanation and it found !
one. 1t is this: There is class of
persons in the United States called the |
independents, or more euphOniOusly |
the ''mugwumps." They were report
ed to have done some respectable ser
vice to the successful candidate in the |
last campaign. The partisan mind |
thought that for that service they were |
entitled to some reward in the shape of
spOils-entitled to what is commonly |
called recognition. And it was said,
in much as they asked for nothing |
else in the shape of recognition but the |
disappointment of that postmaster, let
them have it. 1t is payment in full for
all that they have done in the late
campaign. Now this was an idea |
which the Old-fashiOned partisan mind
could understand. OF course some of
the papers said that that part of the
spOils was rather too much for it was
doubtful after all whether the indie
pendents or this Rev. Mr.. Burchard
with his rum, Romanism and rebel
lion" elected him. Nevertheless, the
partisan mind was satisfied. 1t was at
least the principle of spoils; and that
was in keeping with his ideals. Now,
regret to say, in the interest of truth
have to dispel that pleasing view,
The fact is that there was no bargain
between President Cleveland and the
independents either before or after the
election, and that there was no idea of
recognition. For even when the idea
of recognition was suggested, as far as
l knew-and ! may be supposed to
know something about 1.-THE idea was
distinctly repudiated. The under
standing between President Cleveland
and the independents was perfectly
simple. 1t was that the service they