The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-04-01


SAID before, an antagonism existing between
as, which know not how you are to cover up.
The Declaration of Independence an abstrac
lion Are the great rights which it proclaim
ed, and which were the boast and glory of our
fathers glittering generalities, "having no prac
teal meaning? II so. would ask any man,
what did you gain by that boasted Revolution
of yours? Wherein does your Government
differ from any despotism on the face of the
earth? Once break loose from the glorious
doctrines of that great charter of liberty, and
you are in the slough of despond; you have
nothing to distinguish you from the most hor.
rible despotism that ever reigned over PROSTATE
human nature. / ask again, why do you boast
of what your fathers did, if they established
mere abstraction, or, as it is sometimes called.
a "glittering generality" The Senator from
south Carolina, carrying out the same idea,
said:
"In all social systems there be a class TO do the
class requiring but low order of ntect and but lule
skill It's requisites are vigor dociy, fidelity Such
class you must have you would have that other
class which leads progress civilization, and refnementn
Now, suppose you had not that class which
leads progress, civilization, and refinement !:
which class can you dispense with best 2 OF
what use is your idle aristocracy? In Gods
name, have they not been the curse. the blight
of every nation of the earth You cannot
have this refined aristocracy, says the gentle.
man, unless you have class to do your drudg.
cry; and that is the sentiment of the whole
South. How Numerically opposed to it is the
whole practical system of the North Is it
reasonable, is it right, that a class shall do
your drudgery-"a class +" that shall obey? Sir,
labor should never be done by class. If you
obeyed the mandate of the Almighty, and
labor were distributed among all the able-bod-
led men, it would cease to be task; it would
become mere amusement, aud it would tax
no mans physical powers above what would
consist with his health and his welfare 1t was
designed-for God is just-that this drudgery
OF which the Senator speaks should be distrib-
uted among all the able-bodied men, 80 as to
make it light, and then it would not be incon.
sistent with the highest perfection of civiliza-
ton and refinement; but, on the other hand,
would Lead directly to it. Labor done BY q
class That sir, was the old curse of the Old
World. A class has been assigned to do the
drudgery, to do all that is valuable, to produce
everything that is beneficial; and the system
leaves aristocratical drones, useless, vicious
idlers, whom any community can we'll dispense
with. say this class you can dispense with,
to the advantage of any community that /
know of but the class who do your labor can.
not be dispensed with. The Senator saws YOU
must have class to do your degraded labor. /
deny that labor is degraded and here is the
point of difference between us, which l fear
can never be overcome. That is one grand
reason why we resist your system coming into
our Territories; it is because you are deter.
mined to centaminate all labor By this degra.
ded class. Will the free, intelligent laborer
place himself upon level with your mere alb
ject chattel, and toll there9 Sir, he cannot do
it, and ought not to do it, and will not do it.
THE WORKING CLASSES
What an idea of labor The Senator sup
poses that the laboring class want but very
little mind and very little skill Sir, there il
nothing On earth that puts the human intellect
to all that it can attain, like the varied labor of
man. What does your drone, your refined
aristocrat, do in his mind2 What problems
does he work out? He consumes the products
OF labor; be is idle, and ten to one he Ia also
vicious. he never invents. Go to your Pat.
emit Office, and see what are the products of your
degraded labor and your refined aristocrat.
The latter never invents anything, unless it is
new way of stnffing a chicken or mixing
liquor. Laughter. He invents nothing
beneficial to man. Degraded labor, with a
low intellect, is all you want Sir, the ma
ohinery brought into operation by Intelligent
labor Is doing now more drudgery than ali the
slaves upon the face of the earth. The ele.
ments are yoked to the machines of human
usefulness, and there they are doing the work
OF bone and muscle, and your system cannot
abide with 1t. The doom of Slavery would be
fixed, if it was by nothing else than the pro-
ducts OF Intelligent labor. You drudge along
in the old wayj you invent no steam engine,
vOur lob 20 II II
want skill; you want but very little mind; and
the Senator thinks the more ignorant the la.
borers are the better, for, he says, they are so
degraded that they have no ambition, and thew
never will endanger this refined class that eats
up the proceeds of their labor
That is the idea of government that prevails
all through the slaveholding regions of the
South. Again, the Senator says of the de.
graded clasa that do the drudgery:
at constitutes the very mud sill of society and of poli,
cal government aud you might well attempt TO build
house In the air. 10 build either the or the other
except on this mud-sill." -
And then he goes on to say that We of the
North have white slaves that we perform our
everywhere, and they must be mud ell
upon which you must erect civil societies and
political organizations. How little that gentle
man understood of the spirit of our Northern
laborers would like to see him eudeayorine
to erect his political institutions upon their
PROSTATE pecks az mud stills. I think it would
be little troublesome. He might as well
make mis- bed in hell, or erect his building over
q volcano, as to undertake to build on his
Northern " mudsills." Then, with a simplicity
that shows he knows nothing of Northern soc,-
ETY., he says we have sent our missionaries down
to their very hearthstansG, to endanger their
system, ! do not know how that is (; but he
turns round and asks how we would like them
to send their missionaries up to teach our Ia
borers their power. was astonished at such
an idea az that being presented to political men
OF the North, who know and see and feel the
power of the laboring clsss of men. We are
all laboring Men, and the politician can.
not live, unless they breathe upon him be
cannot move, unless he moves with their entire
appreciation. They are the goul, the strength,
the body, the virtue, the mainstay, of all our
society. Deprive our State of its iaborers, and
what would it bes We have nothing else, and
we have none of your refined society that is
spoken of. We all labor, and are all dsgraced.
as the gentleman would call it, in our commu,
nifty. Labor With us is honorable; idlensss ia
disreputable. That is the state of things with
rs, and the laboripg nan knows full we'll, and
needs Nc missionary to tell him, the potency Of
his vote. y
We should like to have your missionaries
come up and endeavor to endanger our society {
Good heavensl One man has the came inter
est in upholding it as another. Suppose one
man is richer than another in Ohio. There is
no very great diversity, as general thing but
suppose he Is take the child of the poorest
man in our State, and has he any temptation to
overthrow our government No, sir. Full of
life, full OF hope, full of ambition to 60 beyond
him who has gone furthest, he wishes to avail
himself of the same securities which have min
istered to the upbuilding of others. He is
citizen, who holds all the rights Of citigen-
chin az dear "A the nosf wealthy His stake