Speech of Carl Schurz, of Wisconsin
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| Partner: | buecher.de |
| Hersteller: | Forgotten Books (Schurz, Carl) |
| Stand: | 2015-08-04 03:50:33 |
Produktbeschreibung
Excerpt from Speech of Carl Schurz, of Wisconsin: In Hampden Hall, Springfield, Mass;, January 4, 1859; Also, Remarks of Senator Doolittle, of Wisconsin When great political or social problems, difficult to solve and impossible to put aside, are pressing upon the popular mind, it is a common thing to see a variety of theories springing up, which purport to be unfailing remedies, and to effect a speedy cure. Men, who look only at the surface of things, will, like bad physicians, pretend to remove the disease itself by palliating its most violent symptoms, and will astonish the world by their inventive ingenuity, no less than by their amusing assurance. But a close scrutiny will in most cases show that the remedies offered are but new forms of old mistakes. Of all the expedients which have been invented for the settlement of the slavery question, Mr. Douglas´s doctrine of popular sovereignty is certainly the most remarkable, not only by the apparent novelty of the thing, but by the pompous assurance with which it was offered to the nation as a perfect and radical cure. Formerly, compromises were made between the two conflicting systems of labor, by separating them by geographical lines. These compromises did indeed produce intervals of comparative repose, but the war commenced again, with renewed acrimony, as soon as a new bone of contention presented itself. The system of compromises as a whole proved a failure. Mr. Douglas´s doctrine of popular sovereignty proposed to bring the two antagonistic elements into immediate contact, and to let them struggle hand to hand for the supremacy on the same ground. In this manner, he predicted the slavery question would settle itself in the smooth way of ordinary business. He seemed to be confident of success; but hardly is his doctrine, in the shape of a law for the organization of Territories, put upon the statute book, when the struggle grows fiercer than ever, and the difficulties ripen into a crisis. This does not disturb him. He sends forth manifesto upon manifesto, and even during the State campaign of last fall, he mounts the rostrum in Ohio, in order to show what he can do; and, like a second Constantine, he points his finger at the great principle of popular sovereignty, and says to his followers: "In this sign you will conquer." But the tendency of events appeared unwilling to yield to his prophecy. There seemed to be no charm in his command; there was certainly no victory in his sign. He had hardly defined his doctrine more elaborately than ever before, when his friends were routed everywhere, and even his great party is on the point of falling to pieces. The failure is magnificently complete. There certainly was something in his theories that captivated the masses. I do not speak of those who joined their political fortunes to his, because they saw in him a man who some day might be able to scatter favors and plunder around him. But there were a great many, who, seduced by the plausible sound of the words "popular sovereignty," meant to have found there some middle ground, on which the rights of free labor might be protected and secured, without exasperating those interested in slave labor. They really did think that two conflicting organizations of society, which are incompatible by the nature of things, might be made compatible by legislative enactments. But this delusion vanished. No sooner was the theory put to a practical test, when the construction of the Nebraska bill became no less a matter of fierce dispute than the construction of the Constitution had been before. Is this pro-slavery, or is it anti slavery? it was asked. The South found in it the right to plant slave labor in the Territories unconditionally, and the North found in it the right to drive slavery out of them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of ra
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