Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/493

Rh vanquished with magnanimous forbearance. The people of the South will therefore have no reason to fear that he will act with the vindictive spirit of an exasperated partisan, and no reason to hope that iniquity and factious resistance will meet from him with weak indulgence.” They know that he is not a man of extreme notions, of extravagant fancies; that he will impose nothing upon the people which is unjust, improper, unreasonable or oppressive. But they know, also, that when he has once conceived, in accordance with the popular will, what is right, down he will plant his foot, and neither the power of all rebeldom, nor the very gates of hell, will stagger him. As Andrew Johnson and the Democratic party stirred up the most vicious elements of Southern society to new hope and activity, so Grant's election will put a tremendous damper upon all reactionary aspirations, and give new encouragement and moral power to those men who, in the spirit of peace and justice, strive to confirm the new order of things. Yes, a firm and faithful people, and at their head a firm and faithful leader, that is the true medicine for the sick man of the South. I repeat, in disease of this nature, nothing is better calculated to cure the most vicious appetite than the evident impossibility of its gratification. There will be boisterous incorrigibles, no doubt, but they will gradually mope, and rant, and swear, and drink themselves to death. They will die by self-combustion. And peace to their ashes! But those elements of Southern society which have vitality in them will rise up to new life. All men of sense will cut loose from false hopes, will throw behind them the past, and turn their eyes upon the future. The spirit of persecution will have to yield to the spirit of improvement. In a country like this, habits form quickly, and, before Grant's Administration is over, the new order of things will have deeply entered into the habits of Southern society. Then even