The Portland daily press., 1869-09-11

uspSnueht upon them, even to the extent
| OF hl2n rates oil interest. Capital is power
iui. IL can stay or go; can take take care of
| itself in a moment; can withdraw ,cmellv
from a suffering people; and can atake the
wings of the morning. and dwell in the utter-
most parts OF the sea-" whenever it would
take refuge in place of safety. 1t can protect
itself by bolts and bars; and it can also protect
itself by Literally entering INTO all the great
enterprises which develop the wealth of a
community, and carry blessings to all who
come within their influence. 1t Is such en-
| terprises that the American would protect,
i9r the benefit of the employer and the EN-
ployed alike. Andit is in its connection with
Tue chafacterlstic labor of America, the ma
| native and the foreignborn labor, that is en-
Titled TO protection, and to encouragement in
lis mission OF good as well as of profit and
commercial prosperity.
Said John A. Andrew in the secoud of his
two great orations with which he distinguish.
ed our Society, ard in which he gave the
weight of his great name and deep wisdom
in support of the policy which l am present.
ing:
$50 long as three thousand miles of ocean
roll between the eastern shores OF Amer
lea aud the shores OF western Eu-
rope; so long as two thousand miles
besides of water transportation delay the pro-
ducts of our northwest ON their way from Chi
cago to the Gulf of st. Lawrence; so long as
the interest of foreign capital, the necessities
of foreign labor, the ambitions and traditions
of foreign states and sovereigns and peoples
continue to exist; so long indeed as every
people conscious of their national unity, wi O
are able or worthy TO endure, must, first OF
all things, study to maintain at whatever cost,
the ability within themselves, of independent,
nay, of defiant life,-tast so long, universal
| economy, the common prosperity and the very
| idea of nationality forbid our five and thirty
e II
| main, enjoying sef-government and popular
| liberty, to break the magic circle OF their In
dustrial Power.
The condition of American labor also rem
ders this question OF protection one of vital
Importance to every man in our land who
earns his living by the "sweat of his face."-
Amidst all our changes of policies and indus
tries, and enterprises and wealth, amidst all
the shifting scenes which diversity the face of
American society, and from which no man
and no mans children are excluded, there is
one element which remains fixed and un-
changeabe-and that is demand for indie
pendent, aspiring, educated labor Nine
tenths of our people, perhaps more, are toll
ing on the land, or on the sea, in the work.
shop, in the professions, in all educational in
stitutions, to furnish themselves and their
families with subsistence, to create the mate
rial wealth of the community, and to elevate
and refine and organize and save society. To
the productive and cultivating power of these
classes everything stands secondary. To
them every avenue is open. From this great
multitude spring, in each succeeding genera
ton, the foremost men, who accomplish for us
in every service the great results. 1t is our
laborers who become our inventors, anxious
to relieve the burthens and quicken the ca
pacity of toll. 1t is they who, step by step,
advance from the simplest details, and the
commonest service, up to the highest posi-
tions in all the great enterprises which make
up our busy life. They build and organize
and rise into the control of our railroads.
They conduct our mills. They guide our
ships. They open the paths for capital. They
fill our schools They apply their ingenuity
to the soil. They legislate for us. They rise
into the highest seats Of power. The farmers
boy to whom neither academy nor college
was ever opened, spends his youth in clear
ing the forests, and his manhood in guild Dg
the councils OF his country through great
war, dying martyr to the cause of human
freedom. A young village merchant be-
comes Secretary of the Treasury, and upon
his integety and sagacity, the country i'm
plicitly relies. The highest judicial officer in
the land, once laboring on the soil. From our
workshops aud farms sprang the heroes of
tue war. And all over the land stand the
tasteful and elegant abodes of those who toll
ed with their own hands to lay the founda-
ton OF their pIosperity,-of those who have
not forgotten to cultivate themselves as they
progressed, and who remember literally the
intellectual, and moral, and religious wants
of the rising generation. How the sons of
rour working men strive for the high places!
have not forgotten, and L shall never forgel
she boy from the State of Maine whom l
iound in my early life, on his way ID Boston,
in search OF labor and distinction. He had
left his home, two hundred miles away, and
had dropped tear as he took his last look of
the old familiar spot and humble too, where
were his father and mother, and his ten
brothers and sisters, as he told me and where
were his few well read books, to become
Boston printer, because he learned from
those books that Benjamin Franklin was
great man. He was barefoot and the miles
had been long-but his courage had not
cA cA ana AAna 5nd S h him into the great
the intelligence and ambition and energy
when lnspir" the sons of New England lahar
1t is because labor thus mes at the rourrJit-
ton of society, is the fountain from which all
life springs, and comes so close home to us
all, that we regard it in this country with
such tender care. To educate it, all the
schools are open. To elevate it, all the
rights and privileges of citizenship are laid
at its feet. In many of the occupations its
reward is ample, and it should be so in all.
The laborers upon the land in all the north
ern States to-day are wel-fed and housed,
selves the profits of the soil; and these labor
ers constitute four-sevenths of the aggregate
labor of the country. The numerous persons
employed in domestic service, sharing as they
| do our dwellings with us, are receiving gen.
erous reward for their labor. The savings
| banks in all our prosperous manufacturing
| towns are receiving large deposits from the
| operatives-these deposits increasing in one
section from S34 ,271 in 1860, to $99, ,147,-
| 321 in 1861 and in another from S1S 132, $50
| in 1860, to $31 ,224 ,464, in 1866. Mechanics
and artisans, working singly or in groups in
many occupations, find liberal compensa-
| ton. Here and there employers are setting
| a noble example of cooperation, by sharing
| with their employees percentage OF the net
| profits of the business in which they are mu-
tually engaged And while in some branches
| of business, the uncertainty of continuous Ia
bor and inconstant and insufficient remuner-
| alton, is a cause OF great anxiety, the best
mind of the country is striving earnestly and
| necessarily for the amelioration OF those tri-
| ais, which coming home to the family OF the
| laborer gives sting 10 his toll to which no
| industrious member of a free and prosperous
community should be exposed. Labor, in
| our country, should mean the power OF pro-
| viding by diligence and industry, comtorta-
| bic Subsistence. and an honorable position.
| 1t means all the civil opportunity of which l
have spoken. 1t means the possession OF
.l | nome, Ill WHICH Wdub Sttobo ho OtbtOihSoo Nuo
no distress. 1t means an opportunity for ev-
ery man to get a living, and to advance into
an enlarged sphere. And when we remem-
Der that there are those now in our country
who are earning with their hands the means
of owning their own homesteads, educating
their children, onamenting their dwellings,
clothing themselves and their families so that
a public assembly of our laboring population
in it's best attire is delight and an encour-
agement to every lover of humanity,-when
we remember all this We can understand
what the opportunity and standard OF Ameri-
can labor are. And when we remember also
| how this standard has advanced, under the
demands of the laboring man, and by the ma
ture of our institutions, within the last quar-
ter of a century, how the most intelligent
and humane employer comprehends his re-
sponsibilities and his relations, we cannot but
anticipate for this country just and gener-
aus solution of that question which has tried
the profoundest thinkers of our day.
1t is to maintain this standard of labor in
America, as against the half paid, half fed,
subordinate labor of Europe, that our govern
mental policy should be directed. The infiu-
ence of our free institutions is already felt
abroad; and while our system of governments
is but half understood the fact OF our nee GU
zepship has worked its way into the depths
of the popular heart, and occupies the tnDesus guy
of the most liberal statesmen therc, Il VIC
ever expect the status of our labor also 10 ar
rest attention, we must enable IL 70 no" ~ ,.'
1 N