Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1860-02-09
Carl SChurz on Douglas.

The following are the concluding paragraphs
of magnificent speech, By the Wisconsin
orator, recently delivered in Springfield, Mass.
The eloquent German didn't leave an uubro.
ken bone in the body of The little Dodger, or
of his great principle" We regret that our
want of space limits US to so brief an extract
But one thing Douglas does tell you 81
do net care tcethEr Siarery is u0ted up or doacn"
There is then a human heart that does not
care Sir, look over this broad land, where
the struggle has ragged for years and years
and across the two oceans around the globe,
the point where the far West meets the far
Fast ; over the teeming countries where the
cradle of mankind stood and over the work
shops of civilization in Europe, and over those
mysterious regions under the tropical sun,
which have not emerged yet from the night of
6arbarism to the daylight of civilized life -
and then tell me, how many hearts dc you
find, that do not tremble with mortal anguish
or exutant joy as the scales Of human Free
dom or human bondage go up or down Look
over the history of the world, from the time
when infant mankind felt in its heart the first
throbbings of aspiring dignity, down to our
days when the rights of man have at last
found a bold and powerful champion 10 q
great aud mighty republic wherJ is the page
that is not spotted wirh blood and tears shed
in that a!labsorbing struggle? Where is d
chapter which does not tell the tale Of jubilans
triumph or heart-breaking distress, as the
scales of freedom or slavery went up or down?
But to-day in the midst of the nineteenth
century, in a republic whose programme was
laid down in the Declaration Of Independence
there comes d man to you, and tells you,
With cynical GOODNESS that he does not care
And because he does not care, he claims the
confidence of his countrymen7 Because he
does not care, lie pretends to be the represen-
tative stateman of this age
Sir, | always thought that he can be no
true statesman whose ideas and conceptions
are not founded Upon profound moral convic-
tions of right ard wrong. What, then,
shall we say to him who boastingly parades
his Indifference as virtue May not We
drop the discussion about his craftsmanship
and ask What is he worth as man? Yes
he mistakes the motive power which shapes
the events Of history. find that in the life
of free nations mere legal disquisltions never
turned the tide of events, and mere constitu-
tional constructions, never determined the
tendency Of an age. The logic of things goes
its steady way, immovabe to eloquence and
deaf to argument 1t shapes and changes
laws and constitutions according to its i'm
mutable rules, aud those adverse to it will
prove no efectual obstruction to its onward
march In times of great conflicts, the prompt-
iRgS and dictates Of the human conscience are
more potent that all the inventive ingenuity
of the human BRAIN The conscience of free
people, when once fairly ruling the action Of
II will foil 70 Eo lov
when those existing are contrary to its ten
dency, or it will put its own construction upon
those that are there Your disquSitions and
plauSibilities may be used as weapons and
stratagems in a fencing-match Of controversing
parties but powerless as they are before the
conscience of man, poSterity will remember
them only as more secondary incidents Of bat
tie of great principles in which the strongest
motive powers Of human nature were the true
C0mbatantS.
There is the slavery question not mere
occasional quarrel between two sections of
country, divided by geographical line ; not
Il mere contest between two economical inter-
estS for the pvepOnderence not a mere wran-
gle between two political parties for power
and SpoilS but the great struggle between
the human conscience and d burning wrong,
between advancing civilization and retreating
barbarisn, between two antagOniStic systems
Of social organization. In vain will our i'm
potent mock giants endeavor to make the test
question of our age turn on a ridiculous log
zeal quibble, or paltry legal technicaty in
vain will they invent small lodges aud call
them great principles )" in vain will theyiat:
tempt to drag down the alabsorbing contest
to level of a mere pothouse quarrel between
two rival candidates for q Presidential nomi
nation. The wheel Of progressing events will
crush them to atoms as it has crushed so many
abnOrmites, and future generation will, per-
hapS, read on Mr. Douglas tombstone the
inscription Here lies the queer sort of
statesman, who when the great battle of sla-
very was fought, pretended TO say that he did
not care whether slavery be voted up or voted
down"
But as long as the neral vitality of this
nation is not entirely exhausted, Mr. Douglas
and men like him will in vain endeavor to re-
duce the people to that disgusting state of
moral indifference which he himself is not
ashamed to boast Of | solemnIy protest that
the American people are not to be measured
by Mr. Douglas low moral standard. How
ever degraded some of our politicians may be;
the progress of the struggle will show that
the popular conscience is still alive, and that
the people DO CARE