Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1856-10-01

them if they attempt to escape But reduce
the laborinr masses of the North to ssrcn cents
a day., or TO twenty-five cents day. or to
..tbe Europen standard of wages ito quote
Mr.. Buchanan's precise language) and there
comes an affinity between the oppressed of the
North and the oppressed of the South. We
would make a fearful day of reckoning to those
who had done the wrong.
s'But,'' say some, ssit is only wrong to the
negro--it does not touch the white man it is
only wrong to the farm-l -laborer; it does not
touch the man of the workshop, and the me-
chanic.'' Let me tell you that you make
mistake here. Let me read to you en- adver-
tisement from the Richmond (Ya.) Dispatch,
of January, 1856:
ssSERy!Sr HIRNG.-In Richmond Va, SER
wants, both male and female, are commanding
higher prices this year than the past. Farm
hands bring from $3.50 to S163, and women
from $40 to SIS per year. Factory hands haze
adranced about fifteen per cent on last year, and
first rate female cooks, Of good character, and
without cncumbrance, have advanced even a
bove that ratio.''
s.Factory hands, What sort of factories
Why, my friends, all the tobacco of Richmond,
the great tobacco city of this country, is made
by slaves. If you go into their tobacco facto-
ries. you find no white working men, work
ing women there. You find them all slaves
l said you find no white working men, work
ing women there-I make a mistake / mean
you find no free ones; they are all slaves, tho
some are white as any of you. Go into Ten
nessee, at the iron works there, and you shall
find none but slaves laboring there in the ore
og, INT flar
ufacture and working of iron. appeal to any
colonizatonist that is here, to say whether du-.
ring the last three years prominent gentle
| man of Tennessee-I believe il is Hon. Mr..
Fell-bas not sent to Liberia one hundred and
| twenty excellent iron workers, ,men and women,
| from his iron works to develope the iron re-
sources of Africa +? We have the slave labor
of Virginia competing with free labor in the
manufacture of tobacco. In Tennessee slave
labor is competing with the free labor of Penn
sylvania in the manufacture of iron. Go to
Georgia, and you find them boasting thatGeor-
gia is ssthe Massachusetts, of the South.''-
They take you to their cotton factories and
| through their workshops, and yeu find slaves
| performing all the labor in every establish
| ment, and challenge you to study the freight
lists of the lines of steamers plying between
this city and Savannah, Georgia, and you will
i find that they carry steadily to Philadelphia
coarse cotton fabrics, manufactured by slaves
in the cotton fields in the neghborhood of Sa-
vannah; and they undersell the Philadelphia
mechanic in his own city, because their labor
is labor without wages-laboI at the hands of
people who beget children and whose children
are counted as cattle by their owners.
Not only do they interfere with labor of this
kind; but L tell you, my friends, the question
| is pressed upon us by the South for the estab-
lishment Of trkfe slarerg. This is no idle talk.
They say their institution is no longer safe if
| it depends upon the doctrine OF African slave
| ry. This is a necessity of the South. d.. :.
| The doctrine of white slavery is TO mere ab-
stract theory of the South it is becoming a
necessity. They must either emancipate their
most valuable slaves, because they are white,
| or they must insist upon the north surrender
ing all our territory to their peculiar institution
| Look at it, my felow-citizens /: am | exag-
gerating9 Am wandering one hairs-breadth
from the real state of the case l ask you,
| oh workingmen OF nsylyania, to 60 to
| your pillows tonight and ponder, you have
never pondered before, upon the issue that is
before You in this election. If you are the
friends of frcedom-if you love the Constitu-
| tion of your country-if you revere the names
of its great patriots--if you believe in a SUI
| perintending and avcnging Providence-ifyou
| believe in Christianity which teaches you that
s'inasmuch as We have done it to the least of
| these" (the suffering ones of earth) We have
/ done it unto your Great Master''-Ohl think
and think that all these matters are connected
with your vote in the coming Presidential G.
lecticn-that by your vote you may either say
that this institution, which thus degrades hu-
manity, shall be hemmed in to the South of
that line of 36 deg. 80 minutes, or that it shall
stalk with unabashed front all over the great
territories of theWest. You shall say wheth-
er the laborer shall walk erect, freeman, put
ting his wages in his pocket, and spending
them at his will, or whether, in the south, white
or black, he shall be the mere creature of his
owner, and in the north be reduced by the COM
petition of unpaid labor to a condition, scarce
ly more happy than that of the slave.
Is not the issue portentious one2 Is it
not one demanding reflection Is it not one
demanding vigorous action OH my fellow
countrymen, let not party names mislead you.
Be not deluded by the cry of sAmericanism,'
II 1t would lead you from the free side of this
issue. Americanism is to stand up for the
freedom and equality of man. Americanism
is to governAmerica by sound dAmerican spir-
1t which will maintain the equality of man and
the freedom of man. Be not humbugged Ell
ther, by the cry of Democracy. There was
| time when the Democracy of nnr country