# A Thanksgiving Plea for Free Labor, North and South

a
Thanksgiving Plea
for
Free Labor, North and South.
by
Rev. A. S. Twombly.
Albany: J. Munsell, 78 State Street. 1864.
Discourse.
(Prov., xiv, 23.) "In all labour, there is profit."
The institution of a Day of Thanksgiving was, at the first (as you are well aware), mainly in commemoration of the profit with which God had blessed the labor of New England colonists.
They gave thanks for their deliverance from the dangers of their new home; but chiefly did they praise the Lord, for the satisfactory harvest with which He had crowned the work they had endeavored to perform. Thus this Thanksgiving Day has been perpetuated, as a harvest-festival—as a day appropriately closing the productive year; a day on which the husbandman and his co-laborers, he taking rank as first, might thank the Lord ​in holiday attire, for all the profit granted to the labor of His hands. It was then the original purpose of this day, to make it the culmination of the year of toil, in its reward of cheerful relaxation and responsive gratitude.
"We hail it, therefore, as the workman's day; Upon this day, he shares the bounteous meal with those he loves. With those he loves, he shares the heart-felt joy, Of giving thanks to God; With leave to meditate On Him whose power yields joy for sweat, And blessing for the primal curse."
In order then that we—released from toil, and called to cheerful praise on this glad day—may enter heartily into this jubilee occasion in the full spirit of its founders, let us consider what are the profits we have realized from labor for which we ought to thank the Lord. In other words, what profit is there in the labor we as American citizens, have taken under the sun during the past year.
This question, which King Solomon put so dubiously, I propose to answer at this time most joyously. There is a profit in this toil—there is a reward for all this worry and vexation of the spirit. It must be so, since:
I. Labor for all, with lawful wages for it all, is a law of nature with its intention, regulation and reward, as fixed and sure as any other law of God. ​It is decided in the everlasting counsels of Jehovah, that labor, properly adjusted and applied, shall be productive of real happiness to every member of the race; not material only, but mental and spiritual happiness; and consequently, that in the long run, unworkers shall not reap this profit. If unworkers, because of an abundance without toil, they shall be weakened, deprived of happiness, or destroyed by inactivity; if unworkers, because they are deprived of work, which is the inalienable right of all according to this law of nature, they must also lose the profit of their labor, and must starve and die; not in this case by God's decree, but by the perversion of a natural law to their destruction through the selfishness of their fellow-men.
Moreover, from this law of nature, which provides for all a right to labor in its profitable sense, it follows that the over-worked many lose this profit, if by their cupidity or the oppression of others, they become subjected to the suffering which follows labor when pressed beyond its proper sphere. We gather, then, from these examples of the violation of the law of labor, what it is and what it yields.
II. We find the object of this law, two-fold. It looks to the support and the development of all the human faculties; and men will be obedient to that ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/10 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/11 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/12 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/13 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/14 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/15 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/16 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/17 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/18 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/19 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/20 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/21 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/22 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/23 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/24 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/25 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/26 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/27 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/28 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/29 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/30 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/31 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/32 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/33 ​Page:A thanksgiving plea for free labor, North and South. (IA thanksgivingplea1864twom).pdf/34
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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