89
FROM MR. ROBERT MATHEWS.
February 14, 1899.
Mr. George Wilson, Secretary.
Dear Sir: It would give me great pleasure to attend
the dinner to be given March 2d in honor of Mr. Carl
Schurz,
but it will be impossible for me, to be in New-York
at that time.
Outside of the personal satisfaction of meeting Mr. Schurz, and the many distinguished people who will be present on that occasion, we owe it as a duty to our country to recognize the principles for which he has so long stood. In a democracy the most potent influence in directing the course of public affairs will always be the political ideals which obtain among the majority of its citizens, and it is particularly opportune to honor those of which Mr. Schurz is the representative.
Coming to the land of his adoption to find the liberty which he could not secure in his fatherland, he has always stood for good government, seeking it each time the issue was presented, by those means which seemed to him on that occasion most likely to realize it. Hence he has always been an independent in politics, and has regarded parties as a means to an end and not the end itself. When our existence as a nation was threatened by the civil war, he gave his services to the country that the Union might be preserved. When our political system was being debauched by the spoils of office, he gave his time and his great ability to the cause of civil service reform. And now that the lust of power and conquest has for a time blinded the eyes of many to the
