Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/292

258 heart the character of this Government and the success of your Administration; you may count me among its most zealous supporters and among your sincerest friends. But because I am sincere I cannot refrain from laying before you my apprehensions as to the consequences of this measure, and from testifying to the unequivocal dis approbation it has already met with among those whose opinions we are in the habit of respecting. It is still time to throw open the doors of the court-room, and I would entreat you not to hesitate.

Pardon me for this frank and unreserved expression of my views. I considered it the duty of a loyal man and the office of a friend. 



&emsp; The President's proclamation concerning the provisional government of North Carolina must have convinced you that the policy of the Administration with regard to the negro-suffrage question is far from being satisfactorily settled. I had a long conversation with Mr. Johnson about it immediately before I left Washington. He showed me the “Executive order” in the original draft, and I urged him with all possible energy not to do [take] any step that could not be retraced until the situation would have fully disclosed itself. I saw very soon that he had committed himself in favor of making Mr. Holden provisional governor; I then made an effort to persuade him to strike out that one passage limiting the right of suffrage to those qualified by the provisions of the old North Carolina constitution. He listened so attentively that I was almost sure he would heed my advice. I proposed to him to appoint some sensible and reliable person to supervise the political action of our military