The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1868-09-09

There is food for reflection in the FOLLOWING
| article from that lively Western paper. the
Chicago Post. If the fact that the interests
of laborers, North and South, are identical
could be fairly established Copperheadism
would never again be heard of:
Laborine man, what 20 you-you of all men
IN the worid-mean when you say that you
VIII vote the Copperhead ticket2
10 you not know that the question at issue
p pe.ween the parties, is one of labor and la
ooI aiohe, anu lhat you ale vially interested
In the way in which 1t shall be decidedp
The armies of the Republic overtbre,r slo
cry. What was it? A system by which tho
labOring man of the South-the sIayeMw..s
| compelled to give all his time without nav
we answer. Are you in favor of that system
you man, living by his wages? We hear
you reply-No! II not in favor of slavery,
are you in favor of partial slavery-a system
by which labor gives all its time for part payp
The answer comes again-No!
Why, then, vote the Copperhead ticket?
Do you know the design OF the white men
the rebels-of the South? What do tbey
want? We have an hundred times explain.
ed: They want the laborer as a serf or a ne
IN with only partial pay. II they cannot oct
all his wages, as in slavery, they want part
OF his wages by their notion OF what should
"e 0no ID" VI icCoholIuctlOn. lney hate to
give him up. They intend further robbery
If the white men can get labor for half or
fourth of what it is worth, how does the fact
Affect you? Have you no interest in il?
Labor is OF no race nor nationality.
days labor is so mary clicks with the spade.
tbe hammer, the trowel; so many furrows
with the ploT; so many strokes with the
axe The color of the man who gives these
"licks," plows these furrows, is matter of in
difference Rlaak 10
If Sambo and Quashee, in the South. work
at backsmithing, OF plastering, carpentering,
or brick laying, at one dollar a day, how
many carpenters, blacksmiths, brck-layers or
plasterers OF your color do they prevent from
getting employment at three dollars day?
1t they will raise wheat acd corn in Tennes-
see and the other Southern States, at six to
eight or ten dollars month, how many white
men do they keep away rom the wheat and
corn fields of that section? What effect do
they have, in all these employments, upon
the wages of men engaged in the same in
the North? -, OH
The South raises, besides good cotton and
tobacco, good wheat, corn, oats, rye. cat.
tie, hogs and sheep. If by the operation
OF the law by which black labor is deprived
of its political rights, the Southern farmer
can get his work Tor one-third what the same
is worth in the North, how long will North
The black labOring force of the South. num-
bers four millions. 1t is by no means to be
despised. Laborer, is it for your interest that
1t should be defrauded? II the laboring men
of Maine were compelled by the political and
social arrangements OF their employers TO toll
for what is paid the laborer of the South. how
long could the price OF your labor in Illinois
De Kept upP What is true of these two
States Is equally true of labor in the North
and the South. Labor wronged anywhere, Is
wronged everywhere.
But how do we know what the South in
tends? Why, by what various States OF the
South have done. Take Mississippi as an
example OF the whole. In that State the
Democrats" decIeed that the black iaboring
man should not be permitted to acquire land
on which TO make himself a home; that
he should have no part or lot in the
choice OF the men who were 10 Gov
ern him; that he and his children should b.
subject to what they called a"Vasrancy act,s
by the operation OF which his family and him
self could be arrested and sold to the highest
bidder whenever any white man desired that
result These and many other provisions OF
that law expressed the Democratic idea OF
the rights OF the laboring man who happen
ed to be not wholly white. That law was
passed since the war.
Now, we ask the laborer of the North, Is
such legislation just or faira Is IL not blow
at you, O". e-pianation being correct, thar
the interests OF laboring men sIs the same
everywhere? Do you want labor in this
country to suffer that degradation? Do you
suppose that, with your boosted intelligence,
II you were legisiated for as the democrats
propose 10 legislate for the laboring man OF
the South-if you were reduced TO the eondi-
tion OF serfs or helots without political rights
that you Mr. Blacksmith, you Mr.. Carpen-
tel, you Mr.. Mason, you Mr.. Tailor, would be
able TO command three 10 iour dollars day
for your services? How long before you
would be working for what the black laboring
man now gets? Look across the water, if
the black example IS not sufficient, and see
how labor is paid in Europe where the labor
ing man has no political rights.
Laboring man! Beware lest you become a
party to rank injustice, to fragrant robbery OF
other men who toll like yourselves in the
field, on the street, at the anvil at the bench,
in the forest and the mine. Rob them, and
the robbery shall return to you. Cypress
them, and you are in danger of being enslav-
ed. The Republican party offers, as its cor
ner stone, freedom to labor, and protection
and citizenship to the laborer everywhere.
1t will favor none, oppress none. Liberty to
all, and full days wages for an honest days
work. What more can laborer desire?