Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/227

Rh ter], as often as his hasty journey is arrested by a spontaneous gathering. And when you hear a subterranean, spectral voice cry out, “my great principle—non-intervention!” that is the dead squatter sovereign atoning for the evil deeds he committed in his bodily existence. [Prolonged laughter and cheer.] Not long ago he haunted the railroad crossings and clambakes of New England; then the cotton-fields of the South—the ghostly apparition was last seen in this neighborhood. [Prolonged laughter and cheers.]

Where is that formidable party tyrant whose wishes once were commands; who broke down sacred compromises with a mere stroke of his finger; whose very nod made the heads of those who displeased him fly into the basket; whose very whims were tests of Democracy? Where is he who once, like Macbeth, thought himself invulnerable by any man “who was of woman born;” invincible,

Like Macbeth, he has believed the fiends

and there he stands, tied to the stake of his nomination.

But as Birnam Wood marched to Dunsinane, so the very fence-rails of Illinois are rushing down upon him [tremendous laughter and cheers], and, like Macduff, there rises against him the spirit of free labor, whose