Page:Speeches, correspondence and political papers of Carl Schurz, Volume 3.djvu/178

152 irresponsible power; and with all the anxiety of an honest heart—and it may be my last opportunity upon this great forum—I cry out to you once more: Turn back, turn back in your dangerous course while it is yet time. In the name of that inheritance of peace and freedom which you desire to leave to your children, in the name of the pride with which the American lifts up his head among the nations of the world, do not trifle with the Constitution of your country, do not put in jeopardy that which is the dearest glory of the American name. Let not the representatives of the people falter and fail in the supreme hour when the liberties of the people are at stake. 

 &emsp; Your last very kind letter I ought to have answered long ago; but you know what the last expiring agonies of Congress are. And immediately afterwards I had to set out on a lecturing trip to fill some gaps, in other words, to avoid running into debt.

I thank you sincerely for the warm sympathy you express concerning my fortunes as a public man. It is certainly a great satisfaction to me to see so many evidences of my having won the good opinion of that class of men whose esteem one may well be proud of. As to the influences which controlled the Senatorial election in Missouri, I think those things must work themselves out. Unless I am greatly mistaken, the Democratic party begins already to feel the consequences of its narrow-minded partisan course in those States of which it had control. But would it not be a sad thing to see the Presidential campaign of next year run again in the old party-ruts and turn upon the question not which party is the