Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-10-29
GREAT SPEECH IN BROOKLYN, N. Y.
Gen. Carl Schurz on Slavery.


nationality. Although it was the slave pow
er which had attempted to break up the
| Union, we did not at first touch slavery in
defending the Union. No, with scrupulous-
ness of very doubtful merit, slavery was pro-
tected by many of our leaders-especially
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 rebellious 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
thence of the people. Laughter. 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.
CONTINUED 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
discomfort 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 judg-
ment Shouts 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. 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 a 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. I
If 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 vigor-
| Gus and stubborn; and not only that but its
resistance being crowned with success, il be-
came 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
its 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 not the
| object of the war to make the Union perma-
nent by restoring loyalty to the Union? But
II Inv What in tho world laxyalfx, no
| restored, if it is not by crushing out the ele-
ment which breeds disloyalty and treason as its
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 a 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
| been, as soon as he throws his whole heart
! into the struggle for the Union, throws at the
same time his whole heart into the struggle
against slavery. Cheers. Look at some of
| the brightest names which the history of this
period will hand down to posterity-your
own Daniel S. Dickinson, Benjamin +. 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 lustre-the
men whom you parade in the foremost when
| YOU boast before the world abroad of your
nations greatness-there is not one of them
| who did not rack his brain to find a way in
| which the Republic could be delivered of the
| incubus of Slavery. But their endeavors
we're in vain. The masses of the people did
not see the greatness of the danger; their
Il
momentary advantage. Then at once began
one of those great laws-by which human af-
| fairs right themselves-tO operate, 1t is the
| law that a great abuse, urged on by its neces-
| sites, must render itself insupportable, and
| DEFY destruction. Slavery grew under
your fostering care with its 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 threat, and what it asked was
| given. Then it asked all we had in common.
Il asked for dictatorship, and the accom-
panying threat became a 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 selfdestruction was writ
ten by hand mightier than that of mortal
man? And you will stand up against it p
What are you about to do Stop and con-
slider. Slavery is dying fast. Its life is ebb-
| ing out of a thousand mortal wounds. Even
| its nearest friends in rebellion are standing
around its death bed in utter desp>Sr; even
they give it up. Hardly anything remains to