Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-10-27
GREAT SPEECH In BROOKLYN. N. Y.
Gen. Carl Schurz on Slavery.


We went into the war for the purpose of
maintaining the Union and preserving our
nationality Although it was the slave pow
er which had attempted to break I'D the
Union, we did not at first touch slavery in
defending the Union. No, with a scrupulous-
ness of very doubtful merit, slavery was pro-
tected by many of our Enthusiastically
one of them, who at that time held the high
est military command, made it a special OBJ
ject not to hurt slavery, while fighting against
the rebelious STAKEHOLDER, and he exhausted
all the resources, of his craftsmanship for that
purpose. Long continued laughter 1t is
true, he exhausted at the same time the pa
tience of the people. [LaughteEl That
craftsmanship threatened to exhaust all our
military and financial resources; but if, in
deed, it did threaten to exhaust the resources
OF the rebellion, the threat was very gentle.
LContinued laughter and cheers You re-
member the results of that period of kid
glove policy, which the South found so very
gentlemanly: reverse after reverse popular
dlscontent rising to dependency; ruin star
ing us IN the face. The war threatened. in
deed, to become failure and if the resolu-
ton OF the Chicago Convention, which de-
clares the war failure, had special reference
TO that period when the distinguished candi-
date OF the Democratic party was General-in-
Chief, then, it must confessed, the Chicago
Convention showed certain degree of iudo-
ment. lShouts of laughter and applause.
OBJECT OF THE WAR NOT CHANGED.
Gradually it became clear to every candid
mind that slavery, untouched, constituted the
strength OF the rebellion; but that slavery,
touched, would constitute its Weakness
The negro titled its fields and fed its armies;
the negro carried its baggage and dug its
trenches; and the same negro was longing
for the day when.he would be permitted to
fight for the Union instead of being forced to
work for the rebellion. [Applause.l To OBJ
lige him to work for the rebellion instead of
permitting him to fight for the Union would
have been more than folly; it would have
been crime against the nation. Loud
cheers. To give him his freedom, then, was
an act of justice, not only to him but to the
American Republic. CONTINUED applause
II the rebellious slave power had submitted
after the first six months of the war, it is pos
sible that slavery might have had another
lease Of life. But its resistance being yieor-
Gus and Stubborn and not only that, but it's
resistance being crowned with success, it be-
came a question of life or death-the death of
the nation Or the death of slavery. Then
the Government chose. 1t chose the life
of the nation by the death of slavery; and
the revolution rolled over the reasonable in
stitution and crushed it wherever it found it.
Enthusiastic cheers. Could an act which
undermined the strength of the enemy, and
in the same measure added to our own
could that be called diverting the war from
it's original purpose Was not the object of
the war to restore the Union? How, then,
could we refrain from using for our purposes
an element which was certain to contribute
most powerfully to that end? Was itnot the
object of the war to make the Union perma-
nent by restoring loyalty to the Union ? But
by what means in the world can LOYALTY be
restored, If it is not by crushing out the eIe-
ment which breeds disloyalty and treason as it's
natural offspring? But if it is the opinion of
our opponents that it was the original object of
the war to lay the North helpless at the feet
of the South, then it must be admitted the
war is now much perverted from its original
object. Loud cheers.] The matter stands
clear in the light of experience. Every man
who processes to be for the Union and shows
any tenderness for an agency which is bound
to destroy the Union, has in his heart dark
corner into which the spirit of true loyalty
has not yet penetrated. Tremendous APP
plause. And, on the other hand, every man,
whatever his previous opinions may have
into the struggle for the Union, throws at the
same time his whole heart into the struggle
against slavery. Cheers. Look at some of
period will hand down to posterity-your
own Daniel S. Dickinson, Benjamin f. Butler
of Massachusetts, the venerable Breckenridge
of Kentucky, the brave Andrew johnson of
Tennessee, tremendous cheers, and many
thousands of brave spirits of less note. You
cannot say that they were Abolitionists: but
they are honestly for the death of slavery,
because they are honestly for the life of the
nation. Loud applause. Emancipation
would have been declared in this war even if
there had not been a single Abolitionist in
America before the war. The measure fol-
lowed as naturally as necessarily, upon the
first threatening successes Of the rebellion,
as clap of thunder follows upon a fash of
lightning.
SPLENDID PERoRATIoN.
Look once more up and down the broad av-
enues of your history. Show me your men in
the first great days of the Republic whose
names shine with untarnished Iustre-the
men whom you parade in the foremost when
ou boast before the world abroad of your
atoms greatness-there is not one of them
~ho did not rack his brain to find a way in
which the Republic could be delivered of the
incubus of Slavery. But their endeavors
were in vain. The masses of the people did
not see the greatness of the danger; their
eyes were blinded by the seductive shine of
advantage. Then at once began
one of those great laws-by which human af-
fairs right themselves-tO operate, 1t is the
law that great abuse, urged on by its neces-
sites, must render itself insupportable, and
defy destruction. Slavery grew under
your fostering care with it's dimen-
sions grew its necessities. 1t asked for secu-
rity at home, and what it asked was given. 1t
asked for its share Of what we held in COM
mon, and what it asked was given. 1t asked
for the lions share, and accompanied its de-
mand with a threat, and what it asked was
given. Then it asked all we had in common.
1t asked for dictatorship, and the accom-
panying threat became defiance. The peo-
pie of the North rose up and said: $50 far
and no further" Then slavery, with fatal
madness, raised its arm against the palladium
which cannot be touched with impunity; it
urged into our hands the sword of self-de-
Tense: with blind insolence it threw into the
face of the nation the final challenge: Kill
me- or will kill thee The challenge could
not be declined; the nation refused to be
killed. and slavery had the full benefit of its
defiance Loud cheers Do you not see
that this decree Of self-destructlon was writ
ten by hand mightier than that OF mortal
man? And you will stand up against 1t =
What are you about to do? Stop and con
slider. Slavery is dying fast. Its life is ebb-
ing out of thousand mortal wounds. Even
its nearest friends in rebellion are standing
around its death bed in utter desp>-r; even
thew give it up. Hardly anything remains to
be done but to close its eyelids and to write
the coroner's verdict: Slavery having chal-
Ienged the American nation to mortal COM