White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1860-08-23
CAPITAL Owning Labor.

Mr.. Herschel V. johnson was O very
unfortunate person for Mr.. Douglas to Sc
leet as his second in command in the
coming Presidential campaign. With
out much original force, with no greai
popularity at the South, and almost uu.
known at the North and West, his name
in any event, could give but little strength
to the ticket. Alexander Stephens o.
Georgia, or Andrew johnson of Tenn.
essee, are men of greater calibre and haze
a much wider reputation, and if they
could have been induced to serve with
Douglas, might have frightened the
prospects of his almost forlorn hope q
little.
But Mr.. Johnson, when his opinions
shall be fully made known and canvass
ed, is likely to prove dead weight to a
cause which is already so heavy that il
drags along the ground. He is not mere.
ly Pro Slavery man, who justifes the
institution on its merits, and who would
gladly give it an unlimited extension
Indeed, if Mr.. johnson has not been mis-
represented by the reporters Of his speech
es, he is so ardently in love with the form
of society which prevails at the South,
that he would apply it in other commu-
mites. During a speech which he made
on the 18th of September, 1856. at Phil
adelphia, he defended that system in this
wise:
owe believe capital should own Ia
L., ., tLo.o o,,, I,rLt tbot 4boro ,,,r,gf
be laboring class everywhere ? In all
countries and under every form of social
organization there must be a laboring
class-a class of men who get their liv-
ing by the sweat of their brow and
then there must be another class that con-
trolls and directs the affairs Of the coun.
try I"
This philosophy, it will be perceived,
does not restrict the owning of the labor
er by the capitalist to any special class Of
laborers. Mr.. johnson does not speak
of races at all; he does not say that the
negro workman only should be the prop
erty of the white man of wealth; but he
lays down a general proposition which
includes all classes of laborers. There
must be, he argues, in every condition Of
society, class Of laborers, a class that
earn their bread by the sweat of their
brow, and there must be class of capt.
talists; but the true relation between these
is not the relation which obtains in Eu-
rope and the Northern States OF this I'm
ion, but the relation which obtains on the
cotton and rice plantations. Capital
ought to own labor everywhere, to rem
der the services Of either effective. That
is the doctrine.
1t will not commend Mr.. Douglas to
the laboring masses Of the North, that
his confederate entertains opinions which
would reduce them to level with slaves
The hardy fishermen of New England,
who gather the rich harvests Of the seas
the mechanics Of our great cities, mainly
built by their hands, and the yeomanry
of the Great West, who convert the soil
of the prairies into the subsistence oil
nations, have formed other opinions OIL
the dignity and worth of their vocations
They do not regard themselves as mere
machines engaged in the task Of produc-
ton. They make a difference between
their own labor and that Of the cattle up
on their farms. Labor, in their estims
ton, and in its true sense, is high So
cial function, connected not only will
the prosperity, but with the peace anc
very existence of society. The great tri
umphs of civilization have been effectet
by its means, and those who perform i
properly take their places in the graft
tude of mankind, among the number o
the worlds benefactors.
Nothing demonstrates more clearly th'
debasing effects Of the slave institution
than its power to wrap the minds of thos'
who live by it, into the narrowest preju
dices. All the records Of history show
that the astonishing progress of moderl
nations is due to the emancipation Of Ia
Dor from the old restrictions of serfdon
and slavery. All the writers on tn
course Of civilization concur in the de
duction, and glorify free industry as tn
principal source of those immense ms
terial and moral advances which distin
guish Europe from Asia, and our as
fIom the sge of Gurth and Wanda. "
in the face Of this testimony, II the fac