Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/271

Rh Although want and misery may knock at my doors, mind it not. I may suffer, but be you firm! Let the slave be free, let the dignity of human nature be vindicated, let universal liberty triumph! All hail, American people! we are your brothers!

And this sympathy did not remain a mere idle exchange of friendly feelings. That sympathy controlled public opinion in Europe, and that public opinion held in check the secret desires of unfriendly Governments. Mason and Slidell slink from antechamber to antechamber like two ticket-of-leave men, and they find written above every door the inscription: “No slavery here!” No Government would dare to recognize the slaveholding Confederacy without loading itself down with the contempt and curses of the people. The irresistible moral power of a great and good cause has achieved for us victories abroad no less signal than the victories our arms have achieved for us at home. Our arms will lay the enemies of the Nation helpless at our feet, but Emancipation has pressed the heart of the world to our hearts.

But our opponents are not moved by all this. They come with their last pitiable quibble, and I beg your pardon for answering that also. They say: “Your emancipation proclamation was nothing but wind after all. The proclamation did not effect the emancipation of the slaves.” It is true, slavery is not abolished by the proclamation alone, just as little as by the mere Declaration of Independence the British armies were driven away and the independence of the colonies established. But that declaration was made good forever by the taking of Yorktown, and I feel safe in predicting that our proclamation will be made as good forever by the taking of Richmond. But there is one point at which all parallel with the Revolution fails. If in those times a person had proposed to make an anti-independence man