Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/316

306 “Resolved, That we approve the determination of the Government of the United States not to compromise with rebels, or to offer any terms of peace, except such as may be based upon an ‘unconditional surrender’ of their hostility, and a return to their just allegiance to the Constition and laws of the United States, and that we call upon the Government to maintain this position, and to prosecute the war with the utmost possible vigor to the complete suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon the self-sacrifice, the patriotism, the heroic valor, and the undying devotion of the American people to their country and its free institutions.”

While we all agree that hatred and resentment ought to have no share in the final settlement of our differences, it is declared that the lawful authority of the Government must be vindicated in such a manner as to leave the fundamental obligations of the citizens toward it no longer in doubt. In other words: Here is the press; here is the public meeting; here are our legislative assemblies, State and national; here are the courts of justice—if you have a matter of principle or of policy to discuss, to defend, to carry, there are the means to discuss, to defend, to carry it. If you succeed, well and good. If you fail, you must try again by the same means, or give up. But whoever rises in rebellion against the will of the majority, Constitutionally expressed, must be brought to submit to it unconditionally, so that every man, woman, and child throughout this broad land may know that nothing, nothing at all, can be made by forcibly resisting that will. This point once sternly, inflexibly established, no man will henceforth be tempted to embark in an enterprise which is so perilous and also so hopeless. [Cheers.]

But the peace of the Republic must not rest upon submission alone: it must be placed npon a solid foundation, by securing the hearty co-operation of the now rebellious