Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/461

Rh lead them into a temptation which might have become dangerous to virtue itself, and which naturally proved irresistible to those who desired nothing better than an opportunity to sin. Yes, they surely have done as well, under the circumstances, as we had a right to expect; but they did not do as well as it was our duty to demand. And just here is the “rub.” If nothing better could be expected of the Southern whites than that they would take advantage of every chance to build up another peculiar institution, an interest antagonistic to the fundamental principles of democratic government, and thus plant the seeds of another irrepressible conflict to disturb the future of this Republic, then it was folly, it was absurdity, it was a crime, to place in their hands exclusively all political power in the Southern States. The Southern gentleman showing himself unfit to secure the establishment of free labor and the harmony of our institutions, which is necessary for the peace of the country, the American people could not afford to jeopardize the peace of the country for the Southern gentleman's accommodation. It was our solemn duty to look out for other classes of the Southern people, of whom we had a right to expect that they would accomplish the end.

Congress at last took the work of reconstruction out of Andrew Johnson's hands into its own. It was indeed high time. That sublime ruler of the universe was making a wonderful muddle of it. It cannot be said that Congress proceeded with haste and harshness in the matter of reconstruction. It gave Andrew Johnson's hopeless experiment a fair trial, and only when it had become manifest that the restriction of the suffrage to the whites would lead to a decided reaction in favor of involuntary labor and aristocratic class government, Congress slowly groped its way toward a logical, efficient and clearly defined policy.