Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1858-12-03
SPEECH O. WILLIAM H. SEWARD
Rochester, n. Y, Oct. %, 1853.


or outbreaks of zeal which occur all arouu
mo, show that you aIe earnest men-a;
ID such man an |. Let US, therefore,
e least for time, pass BY all secondary al
- collateral questions, whether of persons
i or Of a general nature, and consider Il
main subject of the present can vass Tt
Democratic party-or, to speak more a
curately, the party which wears that a
tractive namc-is in possession of th
Federal Government. The Republican
> propose to dislOdee that party and disrais
it from its high trust
The main subject then is, whether th
Democratic party deserves to retain tn
confidence of the American people. In at
tempting to prove it unworthy, thini
/: that am not actuated by prejudices agains
that party, or by prepossessiops in favor o
its adversary; for have learned, by som,
experience, that virtue ard patriotism
and vice and selfsbness, are found in al
parties, ard that they differ less in theil
n,otiees, than in the policies they pursue.
Our country is a theater, which exhib.
its in full operation, two radically different
political systems; the one resting upon
the basis of servile or Slave Labor the
ether on the basis of voluntary labor of
/ freemcn.
The laborers who are enslaved are all
negroes, or persons more or less purely Of
African derivation. But this is only ac-
cidental. The principle of the system is,
that labor in every society, by whomso-
ever performed, is necessarily uninteilec-
tual, grovelling and base, and that the Ia
borer, equally for his own good and for the
welfare of the State, ought to be enslaved.
The white laboring mar, whether patiye
or foreigner, is not ersIaved, only because
be can not, as yet, be reduced to bondage.
You need not be told row that the
patton Of our own ancestors, Caucas;ans
and Europeans, as they were, hardly dates
beyond period of 5O0:years. The great
melioration Of human society which
modern times exhibit, is mainly due to the
substitution of the system of voluntary
labor for the old one of servile labor, " hich
has already taken place.
This African slave system is one which,
in its origin and in its growth, has been
altogether foreign from the habits Of the
races which colonized these States, and
established civilization here. 1t was in
troduced on this new continent as an en-
CINE of conquest, and for the establish
mcnt Of Mouarchial Power by the Portu-
guese and Spaniards, and was rapidly ex-
tended by them over all South America,
Contra. America, Louisiana and Mexico.
Its legitimate fruits are seen in the power
ty, imbecility and anarchy which now per.
vades all Portuguese and Spanish America.
The Free Labor system is Of German
extraction, and it was established in our
country BY emigrants from Sweden, Hol-
land, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland.
We justly ascribe to its influences the
strength, wealth, greatness, intelligence,
and freedom which the whole American
people now enjoy.
One of the chief elements of the value
of human lie, is freedom in the pursuit of
hsppiness. The Slave system is not only
intolerant, unjust, and inhuman toward
the laborer, whom, only because be is a
aborer, it loads down with chains and
converts into merchandise, but scarcely
less so to the freeman, to whom, ouly be-
cause he is laborer from necessity, it
denies facilities for employment, and who
it expels from the community because it
can not enslaye and convert him into mer.
,handise also. 1t is necessarily improvi-
lent and ruinous, because, as a general
ruth, communities prosper and flourish or
Troop and decline in just the degree that
hey practice or neglect to practice the
primary duties Of justice and humanity.
The free labor system conforms to the d.
ine law of equality, which is written on
he hearts and conscicnces of men, and {
therefore, is always aud everywhere bene-
cial.
The Slave system is one of constant dan 9
er and dissrust, suspicion, and watchful-
ess. 1t debases those whose toll alone i.
an produce wealth and resources for de-
,nse, to the lowest degree of which hu- t
ian nature is capable, to guard against d
Iutiny and iDsurrection, and thus wastes d
1ergies which otherwise might be en- i
Ioyed in national development and ag- 6
81
The Free labor system educates all alike, |;
ID by opening all the fields Of industrial il
nployment, and all the departments of II
lthority, to the unchecked and equal riv. :. .,
ry of all classes of men, at once secures n
liversal contentment, and brings into the Sc
ghest possible activity all the physical, d
oral aud social energies Of the whole ir