Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/398

364 although it may be for a short period only, will cause some inconvenience and expense; but if thereby destructive collisions and anarchical disorders can be prevented, justice secured to all men, and the return of peace and prosperity to all parts of this country hastened, it will be a paying investment. For the future of the Republic, it is far less important that this business of reconstruction be done quickly than that it be well done. The matter well taken in hand, there is reason for hope that it will be well done, and quickly too. In days like these great changes are apt to operate themselves rapidly. At present the Southern people assume that free negro labor will not work, and therefore they are not inclined to give it a fair trial. As soon as they find out that they must give it a fair trial, and that their whole future power and prosperity depend upon its success, they will also find out that it will work, at least far better than they have anticipated. Then their hostility to it will gradually disappear. This great result accomplished, posterity will not find fault with this Administration for having delayed complete “reconstruction” one, two, or more years.

Although I am not called upon to discuss in this report the Constitutional aspects of this question, I may be pardoned for one remark. The interference of the National Government in the local concerns of the States lately in rebellion is argued against by many as inconsistent with the spirit of our Federal institutions. Nothing is more foreign to my ways of thinking in political matters than a fondness for centralization of military government. Nobody can value the blessings of local self-government more highly than I do. But we are living under exceptional circumstances which require us, above all, to look at things from a practical point of view; and I believe it will prove far more dangerous for the integrity of local self-government if the National control in the South be