New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-06-27
SLAVERY AND LABOR.
a Eeeturf,
DELIVERED AT BOSTON AND NETWORK, JAN. 1885,
BY HORACE GREELEY.

A humble farmers son. upon the granite hills Of
New England early impelled aud Injured to rugged
and persistcnt toll learned not merely 10 confront
labor but to respect IT, and to recognize in its stern
exsctions lis harsh discipline one of the most precious
and vital Of the countless blessings which Heaven
sends u. disguised Affections, as judgments, OF at
least as trials. learned to realize the divine benignity
underlying and animating the sentence passed on our
common ancestors the penalty Of the first trans
eression; | learned to feel that in the world we
nhsbit, and with such faculties, appetites, and
passions as make up that superlatve paradox called
Man. the denunc:a,iOn I" In the sweat Of thy face
shalt thou eat bread" in fact our necessary,
vital safeguard against falling into the lowest abyssee
Of depravity and misery. Only through the mex
orabIe requirement Of Industry has our Race-or
more strictly some part Of itever risen in the scale
Of moral being and this only where such necessity was
urgent and palpabe. Not on the bleak crests and
amid the icy gorges of wind-swept mountains, but IN
uuctuous. sunny Wales amid tropical verdure and
luxuriance have the darker aspects of human inirn
ity been developed; not unmeaning was the first
greet visitation Of human wckedness by deluge,
which covered soonest the low ntervales the deltas
Of rivers, and seaside gades; rich in corn and
cattle so fertile also in pride and sin. Sodom and
Gomorrah, Herculaneum and Pompeii, Catania,
Caracas, and hundred other victims OF some gi-
gsntic outpouring of Judgment, unite in attesting
that where least labor is required to satisfy his
pbyscal needs there is Mans moral raggedness most
dacrspt and repulsive. No well-informed naturalist
need be told that Iceland is more moral than NADIA
poscar-he finds this fact craven the earth-fore-
ordained through eternal and immutabie laws. And
II ia not too much to say that if the doom Of Adam
4 f.. tttoI hat all Mans prIm aul
memorable wants should henceforth be satisfied
without labor on his part, there is power on Earth
that could save him from sinking gradually but IN
evitabIv. into british and debauched Australian or
patagonian barbarism.
Our primitive conceptions of Integrity are derived
from Work As problem is something to be
proved or tested so probity is character that has
been subjected to tine ordeal and has stood the test
in other words, is Integrity Prored. All the pro-
ccsscs of Industry all the operations of Nature, i'm
ply honesty and truth. If any man ever made bass
wood seeds, he certainly made them to SELL not to
plant; and no knaye ever imagined that he could
hoodwink or dupe Nature by the sembance Of service
without tic reality The plowman is always honest
toward her for he holds his livelihood by the tenor
of such fidelity it is only when he ceases to be
producer and appears in the radcaly-diferent att-
tuuC OF TRACER. OF VI s'"N ~
ID tempted to be a knave. All Natures processes are
hearty, earnest, thorough and Man, II he would and
direct. or profit by her evolutions, must approach
her with frank sincerity. Hence hold that no man
ever really loved Work and was content to live by
it who was not essentially honest and upright and
did not tend to become day by day more manly and
humane.
CARLYLE in his " Past and Present, thus forcibly
says-or sings-of Labor.
For there is a perennial nobeness, and even
sacredness, in Work. Were he never so benighted
orgetlu OF his high calling, there is always hope in
man that actually and earnestly works; IN ldleness
alone il there perpetual despair. Work, never 50
Mammonsh mean, rs in communication with Nature
tbc real desire TO get work done will itself lead one
more and more 10 Truth to Natures appointments
and regulations, which are Truth"
"1he latest Gospel in this world is, Know thy
work and do it, Know thyself: long enough
has that poor self of thine tormented thee thou
wilt never get TO know II, believe! Think it not
INV business this of knowing myself; thou art an
uui,nowable individual; know what thou canst work
az and work at il like Hercules That VIII be thy
better plan"
at has been written An endless significance lies
in Work man pcrfects himself by working.
Fopl ungles are cleared away fair seed fields rise in
stead and stately cities; and wltnal, the man himself
first ceases to be Jungle and foul unwhoesome desert
thereby. Consider how even IN the meanest SORTS oI
Labor the whole soul of man Is composed INTO
kind OF real harmony the instant he sets himself to
work Doubt Desire, Sorrow, RemOrse, Indignation,
DESPAIR itself-a these like hell-dogs lie beleaguer-
ing The soul of the poor dayworker as OF every man;
but he bends himself with free vaor against MS task
and all these are sled all these shrink mumuring
far off into their caves. The man is now man. The
blessed glow of Labor in hm-is il not as purifying
fire wherein all poison is burnt up, and OF sour smoke
itself there is made bright blessed flame :
DESTINY, on the whole, has no other way OF cult
waiting us. formless Chaos once set II reco9CWS,
crows round and ever FOUNDERS ranges ITSELF by mere
force of gravity into strata spherical courses Is no
longer a Chaos, but round, compacted World.
" hat would become OF the Earth, dld she cease 20
revolye1 In the poor, old Earth SO iong as she re-
wolves, all inequalities irregularities, dispense them
selves; ali irregularities necessarily becoming
regular Hast thou looked the potters wheel
one OF the yenerablest Objects old US the Prophet
Ezekiel ard far older Rude Jumps OF clay-how
they spin themselves up, by mere quick whHIihg INTO
beautiful circular dishes And fancy the most as
siduous potter, but without his wheel, reduced TO
make dishes, or rather amorphous botches, by mere
kneading and baking! Even such potter were Des-
tiny with a human soul that would rest and lie at
ease, that would work and spin! OF an idle un-
revolving man. the kindest Destiny, like the most as
siduous potter without wheel, can bake and knead
nothing other than botch; let her spend on him
what expensive coloring, what gliding and enamelng
she will he is a botch. Not dish; no, bullying,
kneaded crooked, stumbling squlntcornered, amor
thous botch-a mere enameled vessel oil dishOnOr
Let the idle think OF this"
:, blessed is he who has found his work; let him
ask no other blessedness. He has a work, life
purpose; he has found il, and will follow IT, How as
a fiee-howing channel dug anu torn by noble force,
through the mud-swamp OF ones existence, Ike
an eyerdeepeniDg river there, ii runs and howsi-
draining of the sour fostering water, gradually from
the root of the remoest grass blade making instead
of pestilental swamp, green, fruitful meadow, with
It's clearhowing stream. How blessed for the meadow
itself let the stIeam and Its value be great small!
Labor is Life from the inmost heart OF the Worker
IL -.