Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/224

214 and the natural dignity of man? Does it never tell you that the fieriest blush of shame would be an ornament to your cheeks? My friends, I love and esteem all that bears the attributes of human nature; but if sometimes, in an unguarded moment, a cloud of contempt arises in my soul, it is at the aspect of this gratuitous self-degradation, for which even ignorance and error can hardly serve as an excuse. [Great applause.]

See there your master and prophet, prostrating himself before the slave power—in the dust before your proud opponents! You can no longer say you stand by him, for since that day he does not stand up himself. If you are with him still—there, at the foot of the slave power, where he lies, you lie with him. And what did the slaveholders do after he had so meanly humiliated himself, and prostituted his friends? Did they smile upon him? Aye, they did, with scorn, and said, “We loved thy treason well enough, but we spurn with contempt the traitor” [applause]; and there he lies still.

The time of the Baltimore Convention arrived, and the struggle recommenced. It became at once manifest that Douglas's nomination could not be forced upon the Democratic party without splitting that organization in twain; and he saw clearly enough that his election would be an impossibility. The South was seceding en masse, and leaving the Rump Convention to do as it pleased. Then Mr. Douglas, seeing a disgraceful defeat inevitable, wrote a letter to his friends in the Convention, requesting them to withdraw his name if they found it in any way consistent to do so. And I declare, if Douglas was ever honest in anything he did or said, I believe he was honest then and there.

But now the moment had arrived when it became manifest that there is justice in history. [Applause.] Douglas's position was disgusting, but his punishment was