Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/295

Rh in the Southern States. This will be the case as soon as, under the present system, any independent political action is allowed in the South, as it is now in Virginia. The question of negro suffrage will then become the burning issue and is likely to have great influence upon the attitude of political parties and upon the relations between Congress and the Executive. It will depend upon events whether any difference of opinion will assume the character of direct opposition to the Administration, and events, if we may judge from present symptoms, bid fair to give sharpness to the controversy.

This would be an unfortunate thing. It is important that your views on this point should not be misunderstood by the country. There will soon be an opportunity for an open declaration. The line of policy you have followed with regard to North Carolina cannot be applied to her neighbor South Carolina. The reason is simple. The elective franchise and eligibility are limited by the old South Carolina constitution by a property qualification consisting in the ownership of a certain quantity of land and a certain number of slaves. Suppose then, when the turn of South Carolina comes, you order that, whereas the property qualification prescribed by the old constitution of South Carolina can no longer remain in force in consequence of the emancipation of the slaves, and there being no other rule in the laws of that State to guide the Executive, the task of restoring the State of South Carolina be placed in the hands of her whole people, and that at the election of delegates to a convention all loyal inhabitants of South Carolina without distinction be permitted to vote. The reasons for this course will be clear and acceptable to every fair-minded man, and, as the order applies to South Carolina, not even the Democrats will find fault with it.

This will be consistent with the theory that secession