Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/490

456 and their effects were but natural. We may regard them less as crimes than as misfortunes, but we must deal with them as facts. The South is our “sick man.” For his disease we must find a remedy, and the remedy we select must correspond with a careful diagnosis of the ailment. The disease in this case has been an inordinate craving for unlawful power and dominion. This craving was stimulated by the intoxicating influence of flattery and subserviency on the part of the Northern Democrats, and by the hope of success, to such an extent that it at last resulted in the delirium tremens of the secession movement. The victories of the Union army broke the fit, and the patient, when the intoxicating cup of pride and great expectations was taken away, showed some symptoms of improvement. But, unfortunately, the “sick man” has been operated upon by Democratic doctors once more. The worst stimulant imaginable in such a case is false hope; and false hope has been administered to him without stint—the false hope of a return to controlling power, of a reaction in the direction of aristocratic class government, founded upon a new system of serfdom—the false hope of restoration and revenge. Yes; the Democratic doctors seem to have acted upon the theory that this patient, inclined, to delirium, can best be cured by pouring alcohol down his throat by the gallon. No wonder that the disease approaches another crisis, and it is high time that the rational system of cure should be resumed. And what is this rational system? In diseases of this nature, false hope is poison. Nothing is better calculated to cure the most vicious appetite than the evident impossibility of its gratification, and, fortunately, the medicine is in our hands, and the physician stands ready to administer it.

Indeed, the Democrats tell us that our policy will not produce peace, because the Southern whites will not