Litchfield enquirer., 1858-11-11
POSITION AND RELATIONS OF THE DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN
 PARTIES

PARTIES.
 SPEECH OF HON. WI. H. SEWARD, AT ROCHESTER,
 MONDAY, OCT 25, 1858.
 FELLOW ClTJzENs-The unmistakeable out breaks of zeal which occur all around me show that you are earnest men--and such man am l. Let Us, therefore, at least for time, pass ny all secondary and collateral questions, wheth- CT of personal or of a general nature, ard con- slider the main subject of the present canvass. The Democratic Party-or, to speak more ac- curately, the party which wears that attractive name-is in possession of the Federal Govern ment. The Republicans propose to dslodge ] that party and dismiss it from its bgh trust The main subject, then, is whether the Dem ocratic Party deserves to retain the confidence of the American People. In attempting to prove it unworthy, 1 think that am not actu- ated by prejudice against that party, or by p.epossessions in favor of it's adversary for 1 have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfshness, are foun | in all parties and that they differ less in their motives than in the policies they pursue. Our country is theatre which exhibits, in full op- eration, two radically different political systems --the one resting on the basis of servile or Slave Labor ; the other, on the basis of vol untary labor of Freemen The laborers who are enslaved are al! negroes, or persons more less purely of African derivation. But this is only accidental. Tine principle of the system is, that labor in every society, by whomsoever per formed, IS necessarily unintellectual, eroveling and base, and that the laborer, 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 ensla- ved only because he can ot, as yet, be reduced to bondage You need not be told now that | the Slave System is the older of the two, and that once it was universal. The emancipation of our own ancestors, Caucasians and Europe ans, as they were, hardly dates beyond peri cd Of five hundred years. Tie great meora- ton of human society which modern times ex- hibit, is mainly due to the substitution of the old system of voluntary labor, which has already taken place. This African slave system is one | which, in its origin and its growth, has been altogether foreign from the habits of the races l which colonZed these States and established civilization here. It was introduced on this new continent as all engine of conquest, and for the establishment of Monarchcal Power by the Portuguese and the Spaniards, aud was r.p'diy axtsAse4 Ls-- 4iA..-nu all Snnrh A. merica, Central America, Louisiana and Mex ico. Its legitimate fruits are seen in the pov- erty, imbecity and anarchy which now per wade all Portuguese and Spanish America The Free Labor system is of German extrac- tIon, and it was established in our country by emigrants from Sweden, Holland, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland.
 We justly ascribe to its influence the strength, wealth, greatness, intelligence and freedom which the whoe 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 intolerent, unjust and inhuman towards the laborer, whon only because he is laborer, it loads down with chains and converts into merchandise, but scarcely less so to the freeman, to whom, only because he is a iaborer from necessity, it de- nies facilities for employment, and whom it ex pels from the community because 1t cannot ell- slave and convert him into merchandise also. It Is necessarily improvident and ruinous, be- cause, as a general truth, communities prosper and flourish, or droop and decline, in just the | degree that they practice or neglect to practice the primary dntles of justice and humanity. The free labor system conforms to the divine law of equality, which is written in the hearts and consclences of men, and therefore is always aud everywhere benetceut.
 | The slave system is one of constant danger, distrust, suspicion aud watchfulness. It deba- ses those whose toll aloue can produce wealth and resources for defence, to the lowest degree of which human nature is capable, to guard against mutiny and instruction, and thus wastes energies which otherwise might be em- poyed in national development aud aggrand- l Hhn fpao l.,hs Sf. ainn toe oIl alike, and by opening all the fields of industrial employment and all the departments of author ity to the unchecked and equal rivalry of all classes of men, at once secures universal con tentmeut and brings into the highest possible activity all the physical, moral and social en- ergies ot the whole State. h States where the free labor system prevails, universal suffrage necessarily obtains, aud the State inevitably becomes, soouer-or later, a Republic or De mocracy.
 Russia yet maintains Slavery, and is des- potism. Most of the other European States have abolished Slavery and adopted the system of free abor. It was the autasonlstic political tendencies of the two systems which tine first Napolean was contemplating when he predict ed that Europe would ultimately be either all Cossack or all Republican,. Never did bu- man sagaclty utter more pregnant truth l The two systems are at once perceived to be incongruous. But they are n ore than incol- gruous, they are incompatible. They never have permanently existed together in one coun- try, aud they meter can. It would be easy to demonstrate thls impossbility, from the lrrec- oncilable contrast between their great princi- ples aud characteristics. But the experience of mankind has conclusively established it. Slavery, as have already iutimated, existed , in every State in Europe. Free labor has sup planted it everywhere except in Russia aud Turkey. State necessities, developed in mod ern times, are now obl ging even those two { nations to encourage and employ free labor,