Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/263

Rh that as long as the latter remain the same, the former are not likely to change.

Imagine this slaveholding population with a Union army on their soil. Their forces may be dispersed, their power paralyzed, but their former aspirations, although checked, are not eradicated. They move still in the same circle of ideas, and not only their memories of the past, but also their desires for the future are still centred in that circle which slavery has drawn around them. Is not the intention and desire mother to the act? You may tell me that, however ardently they may long for a dissolution, their experience of the present rebellion will not let the idea of attempting another rebellion spring up. Are you so sure of this? True, they will not repeat the same thing in the same way. But have you never thought of it, that this Republic may be one day involved in difficulties with foreign powers, and that, in her greatest need, the disloyalists may discover another opportunity? And have you considered what our foreign policy will be, when the powers of the earth know that we harbor an enemy within our own limits ready to join hands with them? [Sensation.] How can you rely upon the Southern people unless they are sincerely loyal, and how can they be sincerely loyal as long as their circumstances are such as to make disloyalty the natural condition of their desires and aspirations? They cannot be faithful unless their desires and aspirations change. And how can you change them? By opening before them new prospects and a new future. [Cheering.]

Look at the other side of the picture. Imagine—and I suppose it is not treasonable to imagine such a thing—imagine slavery were destroyed in the course of this rebellion. Slavery, once destroyed, can never be restored. [Applause.] A reaction in this respect is absolutely impossible, so evidently impossible that it will not even