Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/443

Rh but also to prevent such obstacles being thrown in our way as might render our ability to fulfil our obligations uncertain? It is clear, therefore, that if the unconditional readmission of the rebel States might become in the least degree prejudicial to our National obligations, it is not only the right, but it is the sacred duty, of the Government to keep the rebel States from representation and power in our National concerns, until they shall have bound themselves, by the strongest and most irreversible guarantees, to respect the great obligations the Republic has to perform. If we have a President whose moral perceptions are so obtuse that he does not understand that duty, every true American should sink upon his knees and thank Heaven that we have a Congress which does.

Let no man deceive himself. It is in vain to resort to Constitutional quibbles. It is in vain to speak upon the mutual aversion of the races. It is in vain to say: “Let us trust the rebels; they have been so clever at the Philadelphia Convention they will at last do justice to the National creditor, to the Southern Union man and to the negro; let us try the experiment, and put power into their hands.” It is in vain to speak of favorable possibilities. We have no right to make experiments with the lives, liberties and property of our friends. We have no right to content ourselves with a vague prospect that the investment of the rebels with political power may possibly not result in a breach of our National obligations. We have no right to be satisfied with anything short of the positive assurance that our National obligations are Constitutionally beyond the reach of the reconstructed rebels, so that if they have the desire, they have not the power, to do mischief. We ourselves have to vouch for the discharge of these solemn obligations, and it would be downright treachery to delegate even the smallest part of them to other people whose intentions are uncertain. We have