Harper's Weekly Editorials on Carl Schurz/The Attack Upon Secretary Schurz

by Harper's Weekly

THE ATTACK UPON SECRETARY SCHURZ.

An effort has been made to cast obloquy upon Secretary Schurz because he has sometimes been paid for campaign speeches. If he had been paid and had denied it there would be some reason for blaming him, or if he had driven hard bargains he might be accused of avarice. But nothing of the kind appears. Mr. Schurz was a poor man with an ability for public speaking which was so greatly prized that he was invited to leave his occupations and stump different States, sometimes for many days, or even weeks. Of course he could not do it for nothing, and he said to the committees that if they wanted him enough to pay him he would come, but otherwise he could not afford it. The committees decided that the service was worth the sum charged, and it was paid. Mr. Schurz says, and with undoubted truth, that he has given as much time and labor to campaign work as any man in the country, if not more, and that he has done a great deal of such work in the last twenty years for nothing. It certainly is not unreasonable that an able advocate whose services are very useful, and who can not afford to give his services in continuous travel and speaking, should be paid for his work. And it is not unusual to offer any speaker payment when he is sought for a campaign in another State. We knew a Senator of the United States twenty years ago who was a poor man with a large family, and who asked and received payment for such services.

This charge is offensively made against Secretary Schurz to discredit his interest and efforts as a reformer of the spoils system of the public service, and it is made by defenders and agents of that venal system. This is not surprising. A system so miserable naturally destroys faith in high motives of public conduct, and those who defend it most lustily are those who have the utmost contempt for patriotism and political honesty. The attack upon Secretary Schurz was promptly and conclusively met by him. He did not deny that he had been sometimes legitimately paid for campaign services. No honorable man in the country will regard him less favorably for it, or doubt that the services were well worth very much more than all the money ever paid for them. It would be well if all public men who have received money for services of various kinds were as clean in the business as Mr. Schurz.