New-York daily tribune., 1858-03-09

Is Saul also among the prophets Such is the
question which presents itself upon reading an
elaborate leader in recent number of The
Washington Union. This article having prefxed
to it the heading of "The Real Power of the Ma
ton, is, whether so intended or not one of the most
efficient attacks we have lately met with upon the
system of Slavery and upon the pretenslons of the
shareholders to dictate the laws, to control the
Government and to engross to themselves the
larger part of the territory of these United States
We can hardly believe it possible that The Union
perceived the scope and understood the force of
its own argument. If it old, it deserves to be
forthwith read out of the slave-driviug Democracy
with as little ceremony as has been used in the
recent cases of Douglas and Walker.
The doctrine set forth in this article is the
superiority in these times ofmachnery over mere
numbers and numerical strength "The machinery
employed in the United States, in all the diyerS
fed ayocations of life, does the work of more
" than six hundred millions of men. This gigantic
engine of labor and production is the chief
source of power" Industry, il is manifest, is
hereafter to be measured by the genius Of the e0un
Z" try, which constitutes to-day the real element of
| "power, not only on this side, but on the other
side of the water. Its partnership with capital
and production has already made complete
revolution in all the relations of human life. The
4" monarchical Governments of Europe have more
10 fear from this source than from the influence
of any political theories or Institutions, not ex
&" ceptug our own. The true, expansive power
of people, lberalizing, humanzlng and ciyiliz-
"ipg-.he central power of progress in its onward
and resistess course, enlarging the mind, exat-
ing the character and imparting true dignity and
independence to man, is to be found in the dis
coyery and application of the laws Of mechanics,
| the true principles, in fact, of all the natural
| sciences"
Now. if The Union will but inquire across the
WAY at the Patent Office, il will be able to learn
that the discovery and application of the laws of
mechanics" is pretty extensively confined TO free
labor communities, it being in fact the great dis
tinction between free and slave labor that while
.lsves work with their muscles free aborers work
with their heads as well. The real power of the
nation. according to this exposition of It, to which
We freely assent consists III the energy and inven.
| tion Of free labor, an energy and inyentOn which
are proceeding every day TO substitute machinery
| #, the place of muscle. - The car" says Tn,
| Union, has taken the place of the coach, the
engine has superseded the horse, the reaper the
cradle. the cultivator the hoe, &c.The:e things
may threaten the idle and the sothful, but they
| e. cannot offend them. The train speeds before
the currcle, the electric telegraph robs the
:. wind. but these are wonders, not insults" Why
then undertake TO represent as an insult the intro
duction into Kansas, into Missouri, iatO Virginia,
instead of the antquated routine of mere muscular
labor performed by slaves, /" the discovery and
"application of the laws of mechanics, " enlargng
"tbe mind. exalting the character, and impartng
-. true dignity and independence to man ?"
1t is not merely between the people of the ULited
States and the people inhabitng other portions of
this and the southern continent of America, that
the application of the laws of mechanics has
created, as The Union suggests, gulf almost as
deep as that which in the parable, separates
Lazarus from the rich man who had been in the
habit of scorning him as an Inferior aud a beggar.
The same cause has produced a gulf hardly le;s
| deep between our Slave States and our Ffec-LIb
| States. Aud il, as The Union argues, the sgpe.