Year: 1873

object of the slave institution was to re


duce the laborer's wages to zero. N


mechanical or laboring class of free me


could prosper or even exist in a communit


where the great mass of laboiers worke


for nothing. The competition was fatal t


the free labor. Nor did the influence G


this wages-destroying institution stop a


the borders of the slave states. 1t wa


felt all over the Union. A million 0


laborers be they black or white, could no


work for nothing in any section of th
country without affecting the wages ques


ton all over the continent. The influenc


was felt in the workshops of Philadelphia


and in the ship-docks of California. Tht
existence of the institution OF SLAYER,


brought home to the laboring man every


where, whether in the fieldio or the Workshop


the question of bread, the question of socia


and political independence, the question ol


personal thrift and standing, the question


of education for his children, and of all


things that depended upon the amount Of


his wages and the dignity of his character


as a man Of toll. We are in the habit oil


thinking that it was nothing but the spirit
of mere fanaticism which was agitatine


the slavery issue for so many years


before the war. No, it was also


a profounder sentiment ; the language OF


all producers throughout the land was,
"We cannot in honor or in interest af-
ford to permit million and more of labor


ers to be made to work for nothing. and


to be degraded into slaves.n


1t was because Virginia was not isolated,


because the southern states were not Sc


gregated, but were part apd parcel
of o nation Of individuals and COM


monwealth of states, that, when the prop
or time arrived, slavery had to yo -(loaDn
under this sentiment of self-protection
and self-respect actuating producers.


For the same reason, it was that the


Fourteenth amendment, making citi-
zenship as universal US freedom
became logical necessity of the
abolition of slavery. The great laboring
interests Of the country could not afford to
let laboring class of nearly five mil
lions of people be degraded into position
in the political system little higher than
animals. To directly degrade one and
half millions Of laboring men to condi-
ton of peonage was indirectly but thor
oughly to affect the character and dignity
of every laboring man and class in the
Union. Hence it was that the voting mil
lions of the Union supported the Republican
party as earnestly in comforting citizenship
upon the southern blacks as they had sup
ported it in conferring freedom and the
right to earn wages. The producing
classes everywhere, though rejoicing in
white skins, could not afford to let great
body of even black laborers even in 4
section he degraded below the rank of
citizens. 1t was because Virginia and
the southern states were indissolubly asso-
ciated with all the other states in COM
mon union, that citizenship was given To
the black laborer.


And / tell the Conservative
party of Virginia that this
had a convention IN Richmond the other
week, and their speakers and editors were
fond Of claiming that it was a convention
of gentlemen, representing the gentlemen's
class of Virginia. Let it be so. Certain it
was that there was but one class of
citizens represented in it, namely, the
the non.producers of the
state.


The producing classes of Virginia had no
art nor part in that body. And | repeat
hat the same feeling which pervaded the
white laboring class, first in respect to
slavery and then in respect to colored citi-
zenship, will actuate them in respect to the |
present Conservative effort to prescribe |
he laboring class from the proper fruits of
and suffrage. They cannot afford |
.opermit the great mass of laborers in this |
state or anywhere else, even though their |
color be black, to be made the subject of |
Droscriptiye crusade, whose object is to
leprive them of their righLful political inhu-
snce and franchises, by appeals to
she unworthy prejudices of race and
color. Let the Conservative party go on
With these passionate appeals of class and
race, and with this proscriptlve programme.
All laboring men, all producing classes,
have common interest and sympathy with |
each other, however different may be the
color of their skins, and you cannot de.
oriye one class of its just hires, or of
is liberty, or of citizenship, or of proper
voice in their own government, or of edu-
cation, without endangering the rights of
III labOring men and exciting their resent
nent.


The Republican party is the laboring
mans party, and actively and earnestly
advocates the emancipation of the slaves,
he elevation of the black man to citi-
zenship, and the education of his
children and in this great cause
mas had, for the reason have stated, the |
and active support of theproducing
classes of the country everywhere the |
ships, in the mines, in the fields, and in the



No portion of the producing class in any
part of the Union can afford to witness
without determined resistance, the personal
thraldom, the political thraldom or the men-
tai thraldom of any other portion of that
class. Everywhere it is bound to insist
upon the personal liberty, the political
liberty and the mental enlightenment of
its own class.


| went to Warrenton the other day,
place reported to be the South Carolina of |
Virginia in its extreme sectional spirit and |
Bourbon adherence to the obsolete state
rights dogmas of politics, to show them |
how completely the Virginia people had
repudiated and recanted from those dog
mas.


l come here to the home of the great |
American apostle of equality, justice and |
liberation to show why this proscriptive |
programme of the Conservative party of |
Virginia must fail and come to grief. We |
live in great Union, whose govern
ment is founded upon just princi-
pies of right and equality. and no mar
row programme of wrong, injustice, and