Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/322

302 using the means we possess to move forward in the direction of the same end.

But you, men of the South, I entreat again to make a beginning without delay. You can not overestimate the importance of the things which depend on your action. If you, by a hearty and well directed coöperation of all the good and patriotic elements of your population, succeed in demonstrating the tendency and ability of local self-government, as exercised by you, to secure the supremacy of law, to protect the equal rights of all, even the lowliest among you, to restore general confidence and to put society upon the road of progressive improvement, the greatest difficulties will be removed which stand in the way of an harmonious and happy future. Upon the basis of the new order of things you will build up your States to new greatness and prosperity. The hearts of all good men in the North will fly to you with the warmth of renewed affection, and the voice of the South will be heard in the councils of the Nation with greater respect and confidence than ever before.

And now I desire to say a word to the young men of the South, who will shape her destinies in years to come. Your lives are still before you, full of promise and opportunity. Look at the circumstances which surround you. The field of action upon which you are to move is so glorious, indeed, as to excite the loftiest ambition. What nobler task could there be assigned to any generation of men than, after a period of disaster and distress, the inauguration of a new era in the life of a people; to rise above all the animosities of the past; to throw off the traditional and now obsolete notions peculiar to an absolved period; to ascertain with a clear eye the great opportunities offered by a new order of things, the result of a great revolution; to enlist all the social forces, from the highest to the humblest, in the great work of common