CARL SCHURZ'S POLITICAL CAREER
February 13, 1872, made a speech in support of the resolution. He had not well mastered the details of the affair; and hence, while his charges of improper conduct by the government were clear enough, the evidence to sustain them was not so presented as to make out a very impressive case. Schurz was not intending to take a prominent part in the debate, but when the administration cohort—Morton, Carpenter, Conkling and others—rushed to the defense of the War Department, Sumner, laboring heavily, peremptorily summoned Schurz to his aid. From the 15th of February to the end of the month the Missouri Senator sustained with but little assistance the burden of a most violent political debate. The climax of his labor and his triumph came on the 19th and 20th.
The debate created great excitement and attracted large audiences to the galleries. On the 19th Conkling made an elaborate speech in defense of the administration, attacking Sumner and Trumbull. The whole White House coterie was in the galleries to witness the overthrow of its adversaries. As soon as Conkling was through, Schurz demanded the floor to reply instantly, but an adjournment was moved and carried, assuring him the floor for the next day. Mrs. Schurz, who had listened to Conkling, was very much dejected and told her husband on the way home that she did not think he could answer Conkling's speech. He tried to restore her courage and then employed the better part of the night in studying the documents once more and in arranging his ideas for the reply. But he could not prevail upon his wife to accompany him to the Senate the next day. When he arrived at the Capitol he found the avenues of the Senate chamber filled with so great a crowd that he could with difficulty make his way through it. As soon as Schurz got the floor, Fenton of New York moved that the doors of the Senate chamber be opened to admit the ladies who could not
[ 334 ]
