Wilmington daily commercial., 1872-03-04
TRUE LABOR REFORM.
Speech of Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, on
the Labor and Taxation Questions.

Senator Wilaon, of Massachusetts, made one
of the ablest speeches that will be made during
this year, at Great Falls New Hampshire, on
the oath OF February. He thoroughly reviewed
the record, and stated the present position of
the Republican Party, and hoping to print the
remainder at some future time, we give, to-day
his references to the questions Of labor and tax
alton -
have briefly referred to this history to show
where the democratic party has stood, and where
the republican party has stood and now stands
The democratic party, unmindful of its record of
forty years, is asking the toiling men Of New
Hampshire to give it their confidence and their
support. | should quite as soon think that the
democratic party would go to South Carolina, and
ask the men whom we republicans have made
free,-the men from whose limbs we have smit-
ten the fetters the men into whose souls we
have breathed the spirit OF manhood, the men
whom we lifted up and put upon their feet, made
them citizens of the United States, secured to
them civil and political rights, and made them
our equals and our peers,-I should quite as
soon have supposed the democratic party would
go to South Carolina and ask the votes of those
men, whom we converted from things into hu-
man beings, with human rights, as that it would
ask the votes Of the toiling men who stand on
the hills of New Hampshire They will tell us
that these men were black men. have only to
say this, that the man who would made the black
man slave would make white man slave if
lie had the power to do it.
| see before me, men whom l recognize as
tOiling men; men who have to support the wives
Of their bosoms and the children of their love
by manual labor. call the earnest attention Of
these men to this terrible struggle through
which we have passed. and to what has been
achieved for the poor toiing men of this coun-
try during the last twelve years. | feel that
have the right to speak for toilipg women and
tolling men. was born here in your county
of Strafford. l was born in poverty; want sat by
my I Eop hat il IN aalF fl.aF.
for bread when she had none to give l left my
home at ten years Of age and served an appren-
ticeship of eleven years, receiving months
schooling each year, anda the end of eleven years
Of hard work, yoke of oxen and six sheep,
which brought me eighty-four dollars. A dollar
would cover every penny spent from the time
was born until was twenty-one years Of age
know what it is to travel weary miles and ask
my fellow-men to give me leave to toll. l re-
member that in September, 1888, walked into
your village from my native town, went through
your mills, seeking employment. If anybody
had offered me eight or nine dollars a month, /
should hove accepted it gladly. 1 went down to
Salmon Falls,I went TO Dover, L went to Newman
Ret and tried to get work without success, and
| returned home weary but not discouraged, and
put my pack on my back and walked to the
town where now live and learned mechanic 8
trade. know the hard lot that toiling men
have to endure in this world, and every pulsa-
tlon OF my heart, every conviction of my judg-
mont, puts me on the side Of the toilng men Of
hnti-slavery man thirty-six years ago, because
the poor bond man was the lowest, most de-
graded and helpless type of manhood. An anti
slavery man from conviction is by logical neces-
sity not only the inhexible foe OF the doctrine
that capital should own labor, but the unyiedng
friend Of the rights Of the SONS and daughters
of toll
Let us see what the republican party has done
for the laborng men Of this country during the
last twelve years. 1t struck the fetters from four
and half millions Of laboring men and women,
converted them from things into men and wo-
men. In making them free, 1t struck down that
proud, naughty and domineering aristocracy of
the South that held the doctrine and proclaimed
it, too-that capital should own labor" that
the men who toed for wages were 1.-THE mud
sills of society,"" that the slavery of working.
men produced a class Of gentlemen, who were
the substitutes for an order of nobility Those
weIe the doctrines proclaimed in our ears fol
forty years by the Calhouns, the McDuflies the
HIM nonds. the Rhetts, the Rufns, the FitZ
hughs. the Herschell V. Johnsons and men OF
that class, who laid down the doctrine boldly
everywhere that slavery was the normal con.
dition Of aboring-men. black and white" In
emancipating these four and half millions oil
black men and women, we struck down the
power OF that class of men in this country for.
ever. They made labor dishonorable in eight
hundred thousand square miles Of the United
States, in the sunny South, as they were wont to
call it. Laboring men from abroad would not &c