The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1872-03-14
SENATOR WILSON ON PUBLIC AT.
81, FAIRS.
Extracts from his speech at Great
- I'll Falls N. H. Gs


*&:t FAIRS.
Extracts from his speech at Great
g. .54 Falls n. H. Il
WHAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY HAS
ZONE FOR LABoRING MEN.
Let US see what the Republican
party has done for laboring men of
this. country during the last twelve
years. 1t struck tho letters from four
and half millions Of laboring men,
converting them from things into men
and women, in making them free; it
struck duvn that proud, naughty and
domineering aristocraoy of the South
that held tho doctrine-aud proclaim.
ed it, too-that ''capital should own la
bor;" that the man who toiled for
wages were "the mu6-sills of society :"
that tho slavery Of working men pro.
duced "a class Of gentlemen, who were
the Substitutes tvr an order Of nobility"
These were the doctrine, proclaimed
10 our cars fer forty years by. the
Calbouns, the McDuf6es,. the Ham.
,nonds, the Rhetts, tho Rufins, the
Ei'zhucghs, the He1schell V. John
s,ns md men of that class, who laid
d"Hn ire doctrine boldly everywhere
that slavery was tho normal condition
Of laboriug men, black and white"
In emancipatiug these four aud half
millions of black men and woman, we
struck down tho power Of that class Of
men in this country forever. They
make labor dishonorable in 100000
square miles of the United States, in
the sunny South, as they were wont to
call it. Laboring men from abroad
would not 60 there to tell; Northern
laborinz mon would not 60 there to
live; they would not stand by the side
Of the fettered bond man, where labor
was dishouored. But, by the steady,
persistent adherence to principle of
the men trained in tho faith OF oppo-
sition to slavery, who now stand in the
ranks Of the Republican party, all this
has been changed, so that to-day the
lsboriug men Of New England can
stand up in Carolinas, by the graves of
Calhoun, Of MoDufie, of Pickens, of
the leaders of the slave-power, who
proclaimed free society failure-that
free men and women we're classed in
fou: subdivisions, "the hireling, the
beggar, the thief and the prostitute"
and "Iook up and be proud in the
midst Of. their toll" We have made
labor honorable, even in the rice
swamps Of the Carolinas and Georgia.
We have taken the brand of dishonor
from the brow Of labor throughout the
country and in doing that we have
done more for labor, for the honor and
dignity Of laboring men than was ever
achieved by all the parties that govern
ed this country from the time pilgrims
put their feet upon Plymouth Rock up
70 the year 1860 [Applause.] And
n is not all. We have opened that
eight hundred thousand square miles
to free laboring men they can go there
now, they are going there now. The
German, the Englishman, the Irish.
man, tho New England Yankee, the
men of the Middle States and of the
Northwest can go there now and en-
gage Ia the mechanic arts, in cult
vating the soil, and in all the Dur.
suits in life, and no longer feel the deg
radiation that rested upon working
zen when labor was sxtorted from
men BY tho lash. Let the man who
tolls for wages, whether in the mill,
on the farm, or in the mechanic shop
realize what has been done these last
dozen years to lift from toll the badge
of dishonor and to open the great
South to the free laboring men of the
world.
SMALL FARMS VS.. GREAT pLAArA-
TONS.
The Republican party maintains the
policy Of small farms against the great
plantations. The Democratic party
joined with the South on that issue, as
it did in everything and on every is.
sue. We passed tho homestead bill, and
James Buchanan vetoed it, and the
Democratic party supported him in
the veto. The object of that bill was
to save the vast public domain to land
less men, that they might have small
farms rather than that few men
might have great plantations We
were defeated but the first year the Re-
publican party came into power in
the midst Of tho struggle for national
existence, We passed the homestead
bill, and saved the public lands to
the free laboring men of this country
forever and forever.
CONDITION OF LABoR1NG MEN.
In 1882, in the great debate in the
Senate on the tariff, it. WIS said by
those who advocated protective duties
that they had raised the price of labor
in the United States so that it aver
aged fifty cents day. How IS it
now2 This winter is tho mcst pros
porous wicter tho United States has
seen in its history. Everybody is at
work. There IS very little suffering
anywhere. Why this change? Why
this improvement? It is because We
have smitten down the slave system,