Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-10-30
Position and Relation ofpartiea
SPEECH Of zee noN. W.. II. SEWARD. DELIVERED

Position and Relation of Parties.
SPEECH OF THE non. WIN. II. SEWARD, DELIVERED
AT ROCHESTER,, n. Z, MONDAY, OCT. %, 1858.
Felloto Citizens The unmistakeable out
breaks of zeal which occur all around me show
that you are earnest men-and such man am.
]. Let us, therefore, at least for time, pass by
NIL secondary and collateral questions, whether
| of personal or a general nature and consider
the main subject of the present canvass. The
Democratic Party--or to speak more accurately
the party which bears that attractive name, is
in. possession of the Federal Government. The
Republicans propose to dislodge that party and
dismiss it from its high trust.
The main subject, is whether the Democratic
Party deserves to retain the confidence of the
American People. In attempting to prove it
unworthy, think am not actuated by preju-
dices against that party, or by prepossessions
In favor of its adversary; for have learned, by
some experience, that virtue and patriotism,
vice and selfshness, are found in all parties.
and that they differ less in their motives than in
the politics they pursue. Our cOuntryiSa theatre
which exhibits, in full operation, two radically
different political systemst the one resting on the
basis of serVile or Slave Labor; the other on the
basis of voluntary labor of Freemen The la
borers who are enslaved are all negroes, or per-
sons mere or less purely African derivation.&
But this IS OREy accidental. The principle of
the system is, that labor, in every society, by
whomsoever performed, is necessarily unintel-
lectual, groveling and base, and that the labor
er, equally for his own good and for the welfare
of the State, ought to be enslaved. The white
laboring man, whether native or foreigner is not
cnslaved only because he cannot, rs yet, be re-
duced to bondage. You need not be told now
that the Slave System is the older ofthe two, and
that once it was universal. The emancipation
ofour own ancestors Caucasians and Europeans
as they were, hardly dates beyond period of
five hundred years. Tho great Moderation of
human society which modern times exhibits, is
mainly due to the substitution of the old sys-
tenn of voluntary labor for the old one of SER
vile labor, which has already taken place. The
African slave system is one which, in its origin
and its growth, has been altogether foreignfrom
the habits of the races which colonized these
States aud established civilization here. It was
introduced on this continent us an engine of.
conquest andtf for the establishment of Mon
archical Power by the Portuguese and the Span
iards, and was rapidly extended by them over
all South America, Central America, Louisiana
and Mexico. It's legitimate fruits are seen in the
poverty, ilnbecility and anarchy which now per-
wade all Portuguese and Spanish America. The
Free Labor system is of German extraction, and.
it was established in our country by cmgrants
from Sweden, Holland, Germany, Great Britain
and Ireland:
Wejustly ascribe to its influence the strength,
wealth, greatness, intelligence and freedomwhich
the whole American people now enjoy. One Of
the chief elements of the value of human life is
freedom in the pursuit of happiness. The slave
system is not only intolerant, unjust and inhu-
man towards the laborcr, whom, only because
he is laborer, itloads down with chains and
converts into merchandise, but scarcely less so
to the freeman, to whom, only becansr he is a
laborer from necessity, it denies facilities for
employment, and whom it expels from the COM
munity because it cannot enslave and convert
him into merchandise also. 1t is necessarily
lmprovident and ruinous, because, as general
truth, communities prosper and flourish, or
ldroop and decline, in just the degree that they
practice neglect to practice the primary duties
of justice and humanity. Thefree-labor system
conforms to the divine law of equality, which
IS written in the hearts and consciences of men,
and therefore is always and everywhere bene.
ficent.
The slave system is one of constant danger,
diStrust, suspicion and watchfulness. Itdebases
those whose toll alone can produce wealth and
resources for defence, to the lowest degree of
which human nature is. capable, to guard against
mutny and lnSurrection, and thus wastes ener.
gies which otherwise might be employed in ma.
donal development and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. The
Gree-labor system educates all alike and nv
opening all the fields of industrial employment
and all the departments Of authority to the ,in.
checked and equal rivalry of all classes of men.
atoncc secures universal contentment and brings
into the highest possible activity all the phvsi-
tcal. moral and social energies of the whole State
IN states where the slave system prevails the
masters, directly or Indirectly, secure all politi-
cal power, and constitute ruling alistocracy
In the States where the free-labor system nre
walls, universal suffrage necessarily obtains and
the State inevitably becomes, sooner or later. n
Republic of Democracy
Russia yet maintains Slavery, and is a despot-
lsm. Most of the other European States have
abolished Slavery and adopted the system of
face labor. lit was the antaponiSfic 1olitScois