Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/375

Rh troops. Did they not? They assailed the Government with boundless fierceness when a General was removed from command, who had been so uniformly unfortunate, that when once or twice fortune smiled upon him, he did not recognize her. Did they not? [Great applause.]

And now, while doing all to keep the Treasury lean, and the army feeble, complain that the conduct of the war is not vigorous enough! Is not this as if you would put a man upon starvation fare, and then complain that he does not grow fat? [Loud laughter and applause.] And this is what they propose to do to make the war more vigorous: if we will but place the Government into their hands, they will dismiss from the army the two hundred thousand negro soldiers, whose services have become indispensable, and will abandon the conscription by which the gap thus made might be filled up. Is not that like bleeding a man to within an inch of his life preparatory to a prize-fight? [Repeated laughter and applause.] Nay, they propose to do one thing, which is indeed calculated to impart the most terrible vigor to the conduct of the war: they will not leave the supreme direction of our military forces in the hands of the hero of Vicksburg, but they will place the hero of the seven days' retreat over him. [Bursts of laughter and applause.] There is some method in all this, for at Chicago they have resolved to stop the war altogether, and, it must be admitted, they know how to do it. Yes, after having declaimed so much about a lack of vigor in the conduct of the war, they propose to stop the war altogether, as if the most vigorous way of fighting were not to fight at all. [Repeated bursts of laughter and cheers.] I appeal again to you, my friends; men who deal in such absurdities, such men would you not be ashamed to follow as your leaders?

But I will be just to them. They grounded their complaints upon other reasons. While pretending that the