Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-09-04

buttons and free and manly labor, but whose
interests are in foreign business houses, and
manufacturing institutions, the latter operated
by the pauper labor Of Europe. That they
should forget that the democratic party has
been the advocate of cheap and servie labor
that the leading and controlling men of that
organization, have, in the halls of the Ma.
tionai Legislature advocated not cheap labor
alone, but servile labor. And not this alone,
but that slavery was the normal condition of
the laborer, and that capital ought to own the
labor of the country and that the men held
ing these views controlled the party during
the last twenty years of its power. They went
so far as to say that cheap labor was what the
country needed, and that slavery supplied
that need, and boosted that they could feed
and clothe man for twenty eight dollars a
year. They sought to make this system of
labor national, and this attempt was not con-
fined to any section of the party: for under
the squatter sovereignty doctrine they de-
clared that the Republic should protect slave
labor wherever the national government had
exclusive jurisdiction. Laboring men and
soldiers know you have not forgotten that
when the men who control the democracy of
the nation, attempted to destroy it, because
you had declared against this system of la
Dor, and you had volunteered to defend, how
the leaders of the democratic party stigma
tized you as "Lincoln's hirelings the tools of
despot" know you remember these things
to-day, and that you will not unite with, or
give aid to party that to-day is unchanged
in its leading purposes, and is aiding, by
its dissemination Of. free trade docu-
! ments, in lowering the standard of common
| labor, by bringing that standard to level
with that of the pauper labor of Europe
Now, laboring men of Augusta, Mr.. Eben +.
Pillsbury told his hearers in the County Con-
vention of his party, holden in this city dur
ing the present week. that protection raises
the price of foreign goods in our market,
and that causes the home manufacturer to in
crease the price of his goods, and that was
bad thing, not only for the country but for
the manufacturer himself. Laboring men, let
US just look at this for moment. Protection
advances the price of the product of your
hand-work and of your labor, and of every
thing that enters into the manufactured arti-
Gle; so that whether you labor on the soil in
the production of the raw material, that
enters into the manufactured goods, or wheth-
er you labor in manufacturing the raw mate
rial, the price of your labor is advanced by |
this protection, and the high standard of your
labor kept from competition with the pauper
labor of Europe. And yet the democracy of
the county of Kennebec, speaking through
E. F. Pillsbury, say all this is bad for the
country. Like Emery of the Bangor Demo-
crat who is in favor of the people having as
much education as they can enjoy, and who
evidently thinks they have not the capacity
for enjoying much, this Kennebec mouth |
piece of the democracy evidently thinks that
the American manufacturer has not the ca
pacity to enjoy very high price for his goods
or his labor. Hence high price for either
is bad for him. But not only as advocates of
cheap and servile labor, and by the advocacy
of free trade, does the action Of the democ-
racy tend to lower the standard of the Amer
lean laborer, but by its assaults on the cur
rency of the country, thus seeking to create
distrust and want of confidence, destroying
the credit of the nation, and in this manner
unsettle the business of the country; all Of
which has disastrous influence on labor, as
they very well know. In happy contrast with
all this, and in the interest of free, intelligent
and honorable labor, and of protection to
American industry, has been the course of
the republican party. Opposed to slavery and
to all systems that tended in any way to de-
grade the labor of the country, it has sought
by all means in its power to provide for such
a general diffusion of knowledge as would
enable every man, who avails himself of the
opportunity, to fill any place or station in the
gift of the people. 1t has sought to aid all the
the bestowment of its honors, forgotten these
principles. The two Presidents it has elect
ed were laboring men, springing from humble
but the most honorable callings of man. And
yet the democratic party has abused them
both in the vilest and most offensive terms. |
And the present Chief Magistrate of our
State is a farmer, Injured to toll, laboring, as
do all the laborers of the State, day by day, |
except when in the discharge of those official
duties which the people have called him to |
perform. So it will be seen that in these |
things the republican party has not been I'M
mindful of what was and is due to labor. |
Nor am aware of neglect on the part of the
republican party of Maine to respond to any
request on the part of the laborers of the
State, for any laws or acts to promote their
interests, that they, the laboring men deemed
of importance. 1t has fostered and encour-
aged Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. 1t
has given encouragement to all our insti-
tutions Of learning and charity, and has en-
acted such laws as humanity dictates, to pro-
tect the homes of the people against the
wiles of the vicious and designing. Proud of
its record the republican ma rty has M faar of