Page:The Reminiscences of Carl Schurz (Volume One).djvu/314

 we took up arms. Upon your conscience, gentlemen, are we the men that made attempts upon that constitution? But we are charged to have incited civil war. Who dares to assert this? Who will deny that in the face of the uprising of the whole people in arms, a grand solemn uprising, the crown would have been urged upon the path of progress, without civil war? Yes, if all were true that is asserted in the indictment, if we had really conspired to oppose force to force, if we had armed ourselves to storm an armory, if we had put arms into the hands of citizens for such an enterprise, even then, yes, even then, we would, after a defeat, be only unfortunates, but not punishable culprits. We would have done it, not to destroy a constitution, but to support one that was attacked; we would have done it not to incite civil war, but to prevent civil war, that horrible civil war, which drove the Landwehr of Iserlohn into the deadly fire of the German riflemen on the tower of Durlach, that condemned, in consequence, Dortu to be shot and Corvin to penal labor. What has become of the Fatherland now that we have not conquered? That you know. But if we had conquered in this struggle, before God, gentlemen, instead of the guillotine with which the prosecuting attorney threatens us, according to the law of the French tyrant, we would receive from you to-day the civic crown.” This part of his speech was heard by all those assembled in the hall with astonishment and by many with admiration. The presiding officer found it difficult to suppress the storm of applause which at times would break out, but everybody felt that this accused man who faced so boldly and proudly those in power, even if he escaped a new sentence, had now forfeited all hope for a mitigation of the punishment already imposed upon him. But what now followed overwhelmed the audience to an unexpected degree. In a few sentences Kinkel pointed out the