the Senate from the State of
Missouri. He was admirably equipped for public service. Although
a native of Germany, he had a most excellent, copious and
clear English style. No man in either House of Congress equalled
him in that respect. He was a clear reasoner, and not lacking
on fit occasion in a stirring eloquence. He had rendered
great service to the country. The value to the Union cause
of the stanch support of the Germans in the Northwest, including
Missouri, whose principal city, St. Louis, contained a large
German population, can hardly be over-estimated. Without
it Missouri would have passed an ordinance of secession, and
the city would have been held by the Confederates from the
beginning of the war. To prevent this the patriotism and
influence of Carl Schurz, then very powerful with his German
fellow-citizens, largely contributed. He also combated with
great power the dangerous heresy of fiat money and an irredeemable
currency. He was a stanch advocate of civil service reform,
although he left Congress before the legislation which accomplished
that was adopted. So he will be entitled to a high place
in the history of the very stormy time in which he has lived,
and to the gratitude of his countrymen.

But he seems to me to have erred in underrating the value
of party instrumentalities and of official power in accomplishing
what is best for the good of the people. When his Republican
associates committed what he thought some grave errors, he
helped turn Missouri over to the Democrats, who have held
it ever since. So the political power of the State since
Mr. Schurz abandoned the Republican Party because of his personal
objection to President Grant, has been exerted against everything
Mr. Schurz valued--honest elections, sound money, security
to the enfranchised Southern men, and the Constitutional rights
which Mr. Schurz helped gain for them. He has never seemed
to care for organization, still less to be influenced by that
attachment to organization which, while sometimes leading
to great evil, has been the source of inspiration of nearly
everything that has been accomplished for good in this world.

Mr. Blaine says of him, with some exaggeration, but with
some truth, that he has not become rooted and grounded anywhere,
has never established a home, and is not identified with any
community.

So the influence of Mr. Schurz has only been to contribute
some powerful arguments to the cause whic