Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/116

96 ideas represented by the Germanic race. They are, and they always will be, strangers—conquerors, perhaps, but, for all that, strangers upon that soil. On the other hand, to the so-called Latin races the tropics seem to be far more congenial. They originally sprung from a warmer soil; and with them—if I may use that word—miscegenation with the native children of the tropics is nothing extraordinary. They seem to blend without difficulty. Hence the Indo-Africo-Latin cross-breeds, that hybrid population, which propagates itself and flourishes there. They will, therefore, if we may judge from the past, remain the prevailing element.

Now, whatever means and remedies you may devise—emigration, education, or whatever else—you will in all probability not be able seriously to change the characteristics of the people inhabiting the American tropics, and they will remain the assimilating force. And here I desire to claim the attention of my friend from Indiana for a moment, for I am going to allude to a remark he made the other day in this debate. He said to us that the people of San Domingo would easily fuse with our political system for the simple reason that they were our friends and wanted to be annexed, and that that process would be infinitely more easy than the absorption of the Canadian people, if the English possessions on this continent were annexed, for the reason that the Canadians during the war had been our enemies, had been sympathizing with the South and at the present moment entertained any but kind feelings toward Americans.

Will the Senator allow me to correct him?

Certainly.

I did not say anything about their sympathizing with our enemies during the war. The Senator is in error in regard to that.