Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/64

30 their criticisms? Sumner's famous speech was mildness and consideration itself compared with the things the slaveholders have been made to hear since the 4th of November. And how tame the latter have grown! The arrogant speeches have become strangely rare and Preston Brooks of South Carolina has died suddenly—of croup, as the children of the world say; struck down by the hand of God, say the pious Abolitionists, and that is also my opinion. This change of conditions certainly is in strange contrast with the results of the election, but its cause is nevertheless to be sought in that result. The slaveholders never thought it possible for the North to be united. Now the most zealous fire-eaters are unpleasantly surprised by the overwhelming majorities won by Frémont in the North, and they have subsided considerably. The census of 1860 will show the enormous growth of Northern preponderance since 1850, and that will “settle the matter,” as the saying is here. In a word, my friend, if you compare the Free-Soil votes of 1852 with those of 1856, and contemplate the developments that followed the election, you will find that the reaction in which we are engaged is directed against slavery. A rebellion is preparing in the Democratic party, and possibly Buchanan will be the gravestone of the country gentry, as Fillmore is that of the Whig party. The fact is, there has never been a more victorious defeat than that which the Republican party suffered last year, and never has a beaten army gained so many advantages after a lost battle. Since you have adapted yourselves to existing circumstances, you Europeans cannot imagine a party defeat that is not followed by subjection. The victory of this or that party does not cause the least change in the usual routine of internal government. Federal politics have not the slightest influence upon it, and you might recently have read how the governors of different States