Page:Speeches of Carl Schurz (IA speechesofcarlsc00schu).pdf/398

388 why the soldiers sent to the army from the ranks of your party have turned against you. [Enthusiastic applause.]

Now, go into the hospitals, Democrats, and look for your old party friends there. If you find one with only one arm, he is certainly a Union man, for he has lost the other arm when fighting for the great and free future of his country. He may no longer be strong enough to load and fire a musket, but his one arm you will find certainly strong enough to wield a ballot for Liberty and Union. [Great cheering.] If you find an old Democrat with one leg, he has certainly turned against you, for the other leg was lost in battle against the enemies of the Union. He may no longer be able to march against the rebels in arms, but his one leg is still strong enough to support him when standing up, firm as a rock, against the aiders of the rebellion in the North. [Repeated cheers.] And if the dead could vote, every one of those fallen in battle would pierce the soil with his bony hand and fling a vote of condemnation in the faces of those who, with their insidious schemes imperil the great cause for which our dead heroes have shed their precious blood. [Loud and continued cheering.]

Thus you see how strong we are; reinforced by the best elements of your own party; supported by the true instincts of the American people, and urged onward by the conscience and the pride of the nation. No, indeed, I do not demand your votes as if we needed them for our success. It is for your own sakes that I appeal to you. This great struggle will pass into history, and no man that has taken any part in it will escape the judgment of posterity. Not many years hence the American people will celebrate another great national festival besides the Fourth of July. That will be the anniversary of the day when the same hand which wrote the Emancipation