Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/397

Rh is no reliable indication of the soldiers' political sentiments; that the soldier votes as his officer directs him. He who says so, little knows the independent spirit of the American volunteer. [Applause.] But, if it were so, what then, pray, has become of your Democratic officers? [Laughter.] No, I will not be unjust to you. You have, indeed, sent a very large number of men from the ranks of your party into the army; and there they are, flesh of your flesh, and blood of your blood. Why, then, do those Democratic soldiers no longer vote with you? Let me say to you, that every man, to whatever party he may belong, as soon as he becomes a good Union soldier, becomes at the same time a good Union man. [Applause.]

The soldier has gone through a school which would do a world of good to most of your leading politicians. [Laughter and cheers.] His political principles have been burned clean in the red-hot crucible of battle. In the awful solemnity of those moments when death stared him in the face, and when he squared his accounts with heaven and earth, he rose to a full appreciation of the tremendous responsibility, not only of the fighting, but also of the voting citizen; then he felt clearly that his allegiance to party was nothing when in conflict with his allegiance to the great cause of his country; then, rising above all his former prejudices, he became ready to acknowledge that this Union can be restored only upon the basis of universal liberty, and that liberty does not consist in the right of one man to hold another man as property. [Great applause.] And, after having learned to understand these great truths, the soldier feels no longer tempted to betray with his vote the cause for which he is fighting with his bayonet. It appears foolish, nay, criminal to him, to shoot in one direction and vote in another. This, and no other, is the reason