Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 4.djvu/294

But here the partisan cry rises up that this would involve party defeat. Republicans, do you not see that the best Republican principles have already been defeated by that Republican nomination? Do you not see that those principles, which were the great soul of the Republican party, command you to maintain good government at any cost, be it even the timely sacrifice of party ascendancy? I am speaking to Republicans, and, I trust, to patriotic men and to men of sense. Many of you, perhaps, recoil from the thought of having the Government, by the defeat of the Republican party, pass into the hands of the Democrats. There was a time when such a transfer of power appeared to involve great danger. That was the time of the civil war, of supreme National peril. That time lies twenty years behind us. The Union is no longer in jeopardy. The existence of the Government as such is safe. We are in profound peace. I have shown you that, aside from the question of honesty in government, there is none the decision of which one way or the other would result in more than temporary inconvenience. This is an auspicious time for looking calmly at the nature of our Government and its requirements. Every thinking man will admit these propositions: republican government, as it has shaped itself, is government through political parties. This certainly does, in the nature of things, not mean that one party should remain in possession of the Government all the time. Such a state of things would inevitably in the long run bring forth very corrupt and very tyrannical government, because it would be irresponsible. What a long uninterrupted period of party ascendancy may accomplish we have already learned by painful experience. I go further, and affirm: The very notion that there is only one political party capable of carrying on the Government, or that there is only one party that can be trusted with it,