Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/489

Rh uncertainties. In this, as in many other cases, the adventurer forms the vanguard of civilization. Not until they can settle down in safety, the solid and cautious men will follow to risk their fortunes. Do they want to know what carpet-baggers can do? Let them look at that towering monument, that crowning glory of progressive and enterprising carpet-baggerdom—the city of Chicago. In this way the white race in the South will receive a wonderful strength of reinforcement reinforcements of men who will not permit the blacks to trample into the dust the whites, and are much less afraid of it; nor will they permit the whites to trample into the dust the blacks, but they will see to it that both races work harmoniously together, respecting one another's rights, and thus promoting the civilization and prosperity of all. The fear of being trodden under foot by 3,500,000 negroes may then cease, even with the most tremulous of the nine and more millions of whites, and the harrowing spectacle of the tragic and bloody self-sacrifice of the Blair family may then safely be spared us. So much for that silliest of all party humbugs—the Democratic cry about negro supremacy.

Finally, the last great argument of the Democratic party is, that the Republican policy can not give peace to the country, because the majority of the Southern whites will not submit to it. Ah, indeed, they will not submit! I am by no means inclined to judge harshly of the Southern whites. I have treated them here without passion or prejudice, as a fit subject of pathological inquiry. As we pity a sick man for his bodily ailments, so we give our sympathy, and, if possible, our aid to those who are afflicted with mental and moral infirmities for which they are not entirely responsible. The notions, habits and influences under which the present generation of the Southern whites have grown up, are not of their own making. They have come upon them as traditions