Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 2.djvu/95

Rh Senate, himself appoint the jury to try him. Is it not evident on the very face of things that the declamation about the President having to be justified and exculpated was nothing but a mere subterfuge?

We are asked, “Why not give the President this commission which he would like so much to have?” Do gentlemen on the other side desire to represent the President of the United States to us as a child, to be humored with a bauble? I, for my part, have more respect for the office and more respect for the man. No, sir; for such things a grave act like this ought not to be performed. Such things are hardly compatible with the dignity of the President, and just as little with the dignity of the Congress of the United States.

Mr. President, what is the subject which we are thus to inquire into and which is being treated with such levity? It is not whether we shall purchase a building site for a new public office, to expend a million or two; not whether we shall grant aid to a railroad; not whether we should acquire a strip of territory on our frontier to rectify a boundary. Sir, the subject we are discussing is one in comparison with which such things appear insignificant and trivial; the question before us is one of the most momentous problems that has ever occupied the attention of the Congress of the United States or any legislative assembly in the world. It is not even merely whether we are to annex the Dominican half of the island of Hayti. It is the question whether we shall incorporate the American tropics in our political system.

Suppose we annex the Dominican republic; will there be the end of our acquisitions? Remember the outcry which was raised against the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. ] the other day when he asserted that the message of the President contained a menace against Hayti. I will not enter into a controversy here about the