Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/113

Rh of their eager appetites? May not a state of things arise under which the rapid extermination of the natives, although cruel in itself, might be the most lenient fate that could overtake them?

But let us go further, and examine the task which, after the “absorption” of the Dominican population, will await us. San Domingo is said to have a population of about one hundred thousand. We annex Hayti, and there comes a population of from eight hundred thousand to a million under our control. They do not want annexation; they do not invite us; they rather bid fair to resist us, defending their independence with the whole power they possess. And yet, in spite of such resistance, we must have that country. There is the “bloody dance.” Nobody will fail to see it at that stage of the proceedings. But you do not fear them. Of course you will have to carry on a war against them; and we take it for granted that you will succeed in subjugating them, at what cost I will not now inquire. France and Spain might offer some suggestions on that head. But you succeed. What then? You have a subjugated race there under your feet. That will be the first blessing of your philanthropic intentions with which you are going to approach upon them! What a peaceable possession you, and what a life of peaceable progress and sweet contentment they will have!

But you go still further. You annex the rest of the West Indies; more and more; not hundreds of thousands, but now millions of people. You cannot exterminate them all; you must try to incorporate them with our political system. And who are they? People who have nothing in common with us; neither language, nor habits, nor institutions, nor traditions, nor opinions nor ways of thinking; nay, not even a code of morals—people who cannot even be reached by our teachings, for they will not understand or appreciate them; all the good lessons we