Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/320

310 in society is gone. Some of the once mighty cavaliers will sullenly sink in the flood, and their fossil remains, flattened and petrified, will be found, like those of the antediluvian mastodon, between the strata of the new social organization. [Cheers.] Curious geologists will dig them out, and the children of the South will wonder how such monstrous animals could ever have existed. [Loud applause.] But others will save themselves in the ark of the free-labor system. They will in time see the wisdom of accommodating themselves to the new order of things, and find out at last that it is better to be an equal among freemen than to be the master, and at the same time the slave of slaves. [Applause.] And presently the South will bloom like the bursting bud of a flower. The immense resources of the soil will, as by enchantment, spring to light under the magic touch of free labor, and her riches will be enjoyed by a free, happy, and—who doubts it?—loyal people. And then will come the great day when the people of the regenerated South will stretch their hands across the Ohio and the Potomac and say: “Blessed be you, brethren of the North! We were sick and wretched, and you have made us well! Not only our slaves, but we also were in bondage, and you have broken our fetters!” [Loud cheers.]

This will be peace and reconciliation indeed; a reconciliation in obedience to the great moral laws of the universe and to the progressive spirit of our age; a peace founded upon harmonious co-operation, mutual benefit, and good-will to all men. Such must be, and such only can be, the internal peace of the Union. [Cheers.]

This, then, is the peace-programme of the Union party: Peace won by force of arms, maintained by an inflexible vindication of the majesty of the people, and fortified in the hearts of the people by the greatest reform of our century, founded upon justice to all.