New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-05-13

women and children into ahiect submission:
not TO Inonopelize the use of any of the ma
terial resources Of the State but simply 10
secure for your labor wages adequate to
meet the necessary demands UPON you for
the support and education Of your families
You do not propose to interfere with any
of the schemes of the capitalist to enlarge
his franchises or increase his treasures.
You simply ask the common rights enioyed
by all men, to secure the fair and lust fruits
OF your daily toll. Those who would at
tempt, either by the Misrepresentation of
the powers they now possess, or by secur-
ing additional prerogatives at the favor of
legislative bodies, to deprive the laboring
man OF this right, are they who invite to
revolution and force by corrupting free
government. do not assert, my friends
that such has been or is the case only
infer possibilities but whatever may
happen, let it be fully understood that
under no circumstances can the law of this
land be violated with impunity. That
which l would not permit in a corporation
seeking to Cypress labor, / dare not, as a
sworn officer of the law, encourage in an
association drawn together for mutual
benefit, when, in pursuit of that object, it
seeks to interfere with the personal rights
of ether citizens.
While one set of men are legally entitled
to obtain as much for their labor as they
can command, they have no right to coeree
other men to adhere to the same rate of
wages. The first may refuse to work with
the last, but they have not the moral or the
legal right to interfere with the labor of
those with whom they work as to wages
1t is my duty to make this point perfectly
plain. Whenever combination of men
seeking an object, violently interfere with
other men who are pursuing their industry
for such wages as they are willing to take,
the act is a conspiracy amounting to crime
against law and order; and law and order
must be sustained at all hazards. This is
stern talk, my friends. but as it is not my
habit to deceive those with whom l am
called to deliberate, do not propose to de-
lude you by false and specious advice.
When capitalists learn to forget their mar
row interests and generously share their
profits with labor they will justly receive
the love and respect of the people. Such a
policy, | doubt not, will receive speedy
realization. Labor can not and will not
quietly submit to Procrustean cuttings or
stretchings to fit any bed that the cupidity
OF capital may prepare for it, unless ''equal
and exact justice be squarely and fairly |
meted out. 1t will not submit to be driven |
out by the Heather Chinee," or by any |
other halfpriced barbarian, the operator, |
or capitalist may threaten to |
import for the purpose of occupying the |
places of our men. Who are these working
menf i answer, many of them have been |
the heroic defenders of the country, to
whose gallant deeds the nation owes its
very existence and the capitalists their al
most countless and still accommodating mil
ions. The battle is between the people and
nonopolists, and all public men must soon
choose whom they will serve. For my own |
part am ready, as far as the law will per-
nit me to go, to aid the workingman to the
ealization of all his just demands; and
whenever the representatives of the people
,ass bills calculated still further to enlarge
hese benefits, am ready, while in author
ty, to approve them.