Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 1.djvu/77

Rh with astonishing rapidity, and even in the South the Germans stood everywhere in the vanguard of the movement.

To no class of our population could the action of the Massachusetts legislature be more mortifying than to them. In the midst of successful exertions they saw themselves suddenly betrayed and insulted, and the predictions of their opponents, which they had so often contradicted, partly verified; and that, too, by the legislature of a State which claims to stand first and foremost in intelligence and progressive civilization. Do not think, sir, that the effects of the action of your legislature will be confined to the limits of your State. Massachusetts occupies a representative position, and the eyes of the whole nation are naturally directed towards her.

It cannot be expected that the foreign-born Republicans, after this, should place implicit confidence in a party that has given evidence of inconsistency and bad faith, and that they should work with equal enthusiasm as before; and I must confess, although I am no less devoted to the anti-slavery cause than any other man in this country, I can not blame them for it. If the people of Massachusetts adopt the proposed amendments to the constitution, the effect upon the political attitude of the Western States will be a very serious one. In most of the States west of the Alleghany Mountains, the Germans hold the balance of power between the parties. The Republican party would never have been able to carry a single one of these States without their co-operation. A change of a few thousand votes in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan and even Ohio might throw those States into the hands of the pro-slavery party. And as for Indiana, we cannot carry it without receiving large accessions to the Republican ranks from the German population. If the just indignation called forth by the