Year: 1867




On the 29th Of March last, the House bill
constituting eight hours days work for all
laborers, workmen, and mechanics employed
By or in behalf Of the Government Of the
United States, was read twice by its title
in the Senate, when Mr. Conness arose and
said;


am for the bill. 1 am very proud to say
. that many years of my life have been
spent in severe toll. Ny education, such as
it is, was acquired pending that toll. | am
one of those who believe-and ] do not say
this for the public ear-that toll is reputa-
bic; that it is ennobling that it lends true
courage | believe that the toilers, after all,
are the men upon whom every society that
is well ordered has to rely. | know that in
! the great war through which our country
has been saved and the immutable princi.
| Piles upon which it is organized have been
preserved for our and the worlds uses, we
Had to rely upon the arms made strong by
toll: that whenever by the process of law
we demanded that citizens not SO connected,
not so educated, not so used, should fill their
part # soldier to the Republic, they begged
themselves off, they bought themselves off,
they stole themselves off, from the field Of
battle and contest.


Mr.. President, | said once before in the
Senate, and perhaps it will bare repeating,
that when | saw the column of Burnside,
thirty thousand or forty thousand strong,
marching through this city to the sanguinary
! fields between the Wilderness and Richmond
and Coal IIarbor inclusive, and stood where
| could see the eye of every man in the
column, l saw scarcely any but those who
| had the marks Of toll and stalwart labor,
black and white and if | never before that
| time reverenced the men who labor, should
| do it beginning at that period OF my life ; but
it was not necessary for me to begin then.
! Now, Mr.. President there is a consider
able agitation in this country upon this
question Of whether a days labor shall be
constituted of eight or ten hours and have
no doubt there are those who think that if
this bill be passed, and the example be set
/ by the Government the eight hour rule
will follow in other industries conducted in
the country. Well, sir | hope it will. A
personal experience enables me to say that |
could myself perform more labor in eight
hours than in ten, taking any given week
! for the average, and then it gave me more
hours of study. Many and many a morn
| ing, at two o'clock, when I labored ten Or
eleven hours day in my youth, found me
yet endeavoring to enable myself to take my
rank among my fellows in society; and l
desire by my vote and voice, if that can in
fuence any one, to give an equal opportunity
to the youths of the land connected with
labor ana toll. Let no man forget, because
his task is made easy in this world, the
thousands, the tens Of thousands, and the
hundreds Of thousands who labor and toll
for an ill-requited compensation for small
compensation, scarcely sufficient to furnish
bread, much less to enable them to educate
their children and bring them up fit to be
citizens of this Republic. Make their path
as easy as you can by limiting their hours Of
labor. Give them time to think.


Mr.. President, have some feeling on this
subject. | had contemplated introducing
such bill myself; but l was not anxious to
put myself forward in it. | have no desire
to win any credit from abroad on the sub
ject, God knows that. But | do ask the
Senate to pass this bill, and to set the exam
pie to the laboring citizens Of this Republic,
the patriotic men Of blood and muscle
Give them the freedom from toll of two
hours less than they now are comp l!ed to
perform. | ask Senators to do it. 1t is not
necessary to refer the bill. We all Under
stand it. Let us do ourselves credit by pass
ing it at once.