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II. THE UNION OF WORKERS.

An Address to the Printers of New-York, delivered before the New-York Typographical Society, at their Celebration of Franklin's Birthday, January 17th, 1850.

The ancient Egyptians had a custom of seating at their feasts the robed skeleton of some departed friend, whose stern silence contrasted strikingly with the mirth and hilarity of his living companions. I believe scholars are not agreed as to the purpose and meaning of this strange custom-whether the rigid, silent guest were intended to say to the festal throng-- "Enjoy and revel while you may, for Time flies, Man perishes; in a few years all is dust, is nothing-therefore, make haste to quaff the wine while it sparkles, to seize pleasure while the capacity of enjoyment remains to you "— or rather to impress the opposite sentiment-"Life is short; Life is earnest; stupendous consequences hang suspended on your use or abuse of the speck of time allotted you; therefore, be temperate in your indulgence, moderate in your festive mirth, and, seeing in what I am what you soon must be, consider and beware!" I shall not of course pretend to decide this grave question, though I shall assume for the occasion that the latter is the true rendering; and, in acccordance with the elemental idea, I venture to assume among you to-night the functions of the Egyptian's silent monitor, and while others stir you with lofty eloquence or charm you with dulcet flatteries-with pictures of the grand achievements of our Art in the past and its brilliant prospects for the future, I shall speak to you frankly of our deficiencies, our failings, and the urgent demands upon us for new and more arduous exertions in yet unrecognized fields of duty.

It is now some four centuries since the discovery or invention of our Art, fully three since our continent began to be the home of civilized men, and more than two since the Pilgrim fugitives first landed on Plymouth Rock. Since that landing, and even within the last century, what amazing strides have been made in the diffusion of knowledge and the perfection of the implements and processes of Industry-in the efficiency of Human Labour and the facilitation of intercourse between country and country, clime and clime! The steam-engine, the spinning-jenny, the power-loom; the canal, the steam-ship, power-press, railroad and lightning telegraph-these, in their present perfection and efficiency, are a few of the trophies of human genius and labour within even the last century.

But while Labour has thus doubled and quadrupled its own efficacy in the production of whatever is needful to the physical sustenance, intellectual improvement, and social enjoyment of Men, I do not find that there has been a corresponding melioration in the condition of the Labourer. That there has been some improvement I do not deny; but has it been at all commensurate with the general progress of our race in whatever pertains to physical convenience or comfort? I think not; and I could not help pondering this matter even while our orator's silvery tones were delighting our ears with poetical descriptions of the wonders which Science and Invention have achieved and are achiev ing. I could not help consider that, while Labour builds far more sumptuous mansions in our day than of old, furnishing them far more gorgeously and luxuriously, the labourer who builds those mansions lives oftenest in a squalid lodging, than which the builders of palaces in the fifteenth century can hardly have dwelt in more wretched; and that while the demands for labour, the uses of labour, the efficiency of labour, are multiplied and extended on every side by the rush of invention and the growth of luxury around us, yet in this middle of the Nineteenth Century (call it the last year of the first half or the first year of the last half as you please) Labour is a drug in the market-that the temperate, efficient, upright worker often finds the comfortable maintenance and proper education of his children beyond his ability-and that in this thriving Commercial Emporium of the New World, this trophy and pride of Christian Civilization- there are at this day not less than Forty Thousand human beings anxious to earn the bread of honest industry but vainly seeking, and painfully, despairingly awaiting opportunity for so doing. This last is the feature of our condition which seems to me most important

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and commanding, and it is to this, on occasions like the present, and in listening to such orations as that which has just delighted us, that my thoughts are irresistibly turned. What can be the reason of this? Why is it that these Forty Thousand strong-minded, willing workers stand here thus fixed, enchained, in loathed, despairing idleness? Why are they compelled to wear out our pavements in hurrying hither and thither in anxious, heart-sick quest of something to do?- with downcast looks and trembling voice beseeching some fellow-man to give them leave to labour for their bread? I trust no one here gives any heed to the mumbling of self-styled Political Economists about "Over Production" and the kindred phrases with which counsel is darkened. "Over Production" of what? Where? Can there be over-production of Food, when so many, even in our midst, are suffering the pangs of famine? "Over-Production" of Clothing and Fabrics, while our streets swarm with men, women and children who are not half-clad and who shiver through the night beneath the clothing they have worn by day? "Over Production" of Dwellings, when not half the families of our city have adequate and comfortable habitations, not to speak of that large class whose lodgings are utterly incompatible with decency and morality? No, friends! there is no "Over Production," save of articles pernicious aud poisonous, like Alcoholic Liquors, Lewd Books, implements of Gaming, &c. Of whatever conduces to human sustenance, comfort, or true education, there is not and never has been too much produced, although, owing to imperfect and vicious arrangements for Distribution, there may often be a glut in the warehouses of Trade, while thousands greatly need and would gladly purchase if they could. What the world eminently requires is some wise adjustment, some remodeling of the Social machinery, diminishing its friction whereby every person willing to work shall assuredly have work to do, and the just reward of that work in the articles most essential to his sustenance and comfort. It may be that there is indeed a surplus of that particular product which some man's labour could most skilfully or rapidly produce - Pianos, Watches, or Gauges for example-and therefore it may be advisable to intermit for a season the production of these yet the skill, the faculty, the muscular energy not required in that particular department of production might nevertheless be made available, even though in a subordinate degree, in the fabrication of some kindred product for which there is a demand among the general mass of consumers. I maintain, then, that in our day no man should be compelled to stand idle or wander vainly in search of employment, even though that particular calling for which he is best fitted has now no place for him, but that the palpable self interest of the community should prescribe the creation of some Social Providence expressly to take care that no man, woman, or child shall ever stand uselessly idle when willing and anxious to work. Even the most injudicious application of the labour now wasted through lack of opportunity could not fail to increase the National Wealth to the extent of millions on millions per annum while its effect on the condition of the Labouring Class, in preserving them from temptation, dissipation, and crime, would be incalculably beneficent.

Now what I stand here to complain of is the indifference and inattention of the Labouring mass, and especially of those entitled to a leading positon in it, like the Printers, to the discussion of a truth so grand and so fruitful as the Right to Labour. It is more discussed, more pondered, to-day, by Merchants, Capitalists, Scholars, and men who are called Aristocrats, than by the mass of those who earn their living by the sweat of the face. It is now eighteen years since I came to this city a journeyman printer, during which years I have been intimately connected with our craft in one capacity or another, and yet I have never heard of a meeting of Printers to consider and discuss the Rights generally of Labour, the causes of its depression, the means of its advancement. During these eighteen years there have been hard times and good times, so called; seasons of activity and seasons of depression-in the course of which the country has been "saved," I forget how often- our city has doubled in population and more than doubled in wealth-and yet the Labouring Class as a Class is just where it was when I came here, or if anything, in a worse condition, as the increased valuation of Property has caused advance in Rents and in some other necessaries of life. Individuals have risen out of the Labouring Class, becoming buyers of Labour and sellers of its Products, and grown rich thereby; but the condition of the Labouring Class, as such, has not improved, and I think is less favourable than it was twenty years ago. Why should it not investi

gate, determine, and develope the causes of this? Why not consider the practicability of securing Work and Homes to all willing to work for them? Can we imagine that improvement is to come without effort or even inquiry? Is it the order of Nature or of Providence that it should? Do blessings come to other classes without foresight or calculation? I have heard complaints that Machinery and Invention do not work for the Labouring Class, but rather against them. Concede the assumption, and is not the inquiry a fair one? What has the Labouring Class ever done to make Machinery work in its favour? When has it planned, or sought, or calculated, to render Machinery its ally and aid rather than its enemy and oppressor?

I am here to-night to tell you that you, and our Trade, and the Labouring Class of our City have been glaringly unfaithful in this respect to yourselves, your posterity, and your Race, and that the Workers of Paris, for example, are in advance of their brethren here in knowledge of and devotion to the interests and rights of Labour. And I am here not to find fault merely, but to exhort you to awake from your apathy and heed the summons of Duty. I stand here, friends, to urge that a new leaf be now turned over-that the Labouring Class, instead of idly and blindly waiting for better circumstances and better times, shall begin at once to consider and discuss the means of controlling circumstances and commanding times, by study, calculation, foresight, union. We have heard to-night of a Union of Printers and a Printers' Library, for which latter one generous donation has been proffered. I have little faith in giving as a remedy for the woes of mankind, and not much in any effort for the elevation or improvement of any one section of Producers of Wealth in our City. What I would suggest would be the union and organization of all Workers for their mutual improvement and benefit, leading to the erection of a spacious edifice at some central point in our City to form a Labourers' Exchange, just as Commerce now has its Exchange, very properly. Let the new Exchange be erected and owned as a joint-stock property, paying a fair dividend to those whose money erected it; let it contain the best spacious Hall for General Meetings to be found in our City, with smaller Lecture-Rooms for the meetings of particular sections or callings-all to be leased or rented at fair prices to all who may choose to hire them, when not needed for the primary purpose of discussing and advancing the interests of Labour. Let us have here books opened, wherein any one wanting work may inscribe his name, residence, capacities, and terms, while any one wishing to hire may do likewise, as well as meet personally those seeking employment. These are but hints toward a few of the uses which such a Labour Exchange might subscrve, while its Reading-Room and Library, easily formed and replenished, should be open freely and gladly to all. Such an edifice, rightly planned and constructed, might become, and I confidently hope would become, a most important instrumentality in the great work of advancing the Labouring Class in comfort, intelligence, and independence. I trust we need not long await its erection.

III. TOBACCO.

Letter to Messrs. O. S. & L. N. Fowler.

GENTLEMEN:-You ask me for a statement of what I know and think respecting tobacco. I have had a good deal of experience on this subject; in fact, I once smoked nearly an inch of cigar myself. It served me right, and I have never since had an inclination to outrage human nature and insult decency in any such way. I was then some six years old, and naturally aspiring to the accomplishments of manhood and gentility; but the lesson I then received will suffice for my whole life, though it should be spun out to the length of Methuselah's. I have since endured my share of the fumigations and kindred abominations of tobacco; but I have inflicted none.

I wish some budding Elia, not a slave to narcotic sensualism, would favour us with an essay on "The Natural Affinities of Tobacco with Blackguardism." The materials for it are abundant, and you have but to open your eyes (or nostrils) in any city promenade (glorious Boston excepted), in any village bar-room, to find yourself confronted by them.

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Is Broadway sunny yet airy, with the atmosphere genial and inviting, so that fair maidens (and the observing bachelors) throng the two-shilling sidewalk, glad to enjoy and not unwilling to be admired? Hither (as Satan into Paradise, but not half so gentlemanly) hie the host of tobacco-smoking loafers, to puff their detested fumes into the faces and eyes of abhorring purity and lovliness, to spatter the walk, and often soil the costly and delicate dresses of the promenaders with their vile expectorations. And, even should the smokers forbear to besmear the outraged but patiently-enduring flag-stones with their foul saliva, the chewers will not be far behind (as the Revelator saw "Death on the pale horse, and Hell following after") industriously polluting the fair face of earth, as their precursors have poisoned the sweet breath of heaven. How long, oh! how long, must all this be suffered?

I have intimated that the tobacco-consumer is-not indeed necessarily and inevitably, but naturally and ususally—a blackguard; that chewing or smoking obviously tends to blackguardism. Can any man doubt it? Let him ride with uncorrupted senses in the stage or omnibus, which the chewer insists on defiling with the liquid product of his incessant labours, seeming unconscious of his utter offensiveness, and which even the smoker, especially if partly or wholly drunk, will also insist on transforming into a minature Tophet by his exhalations, defying alike the express rule of the coach and the sufferer's urgent remonstrances, if he can only say, "why there's no lady here." ["No ladies" is his expresson, but the plea is execrable enough, though expressed grammatically.] Go into a public gathering, where a speaker of delicate lungs, and an invincible repulsion to tobacco, is trying to discuss some important topic so that a thousand men can hear and understand him, yet whereinto ten or twenty smokers have introduced themselves, a long-nine projecting horizontally from beneath the nose of each, a fire at one end, and a fool at the other, and mark how the puff, puffing gradually transforms the atmosphere (none too pure at best) into that of some foul and pestilential cavern, choking the utterance of the speaker, and distracting (by annoyance) the attention of the hearers, until the argument is arrested or its effect utterly destroyed. If he who will selfishly, recklessly, impudently, inflict so much discomfort and annoyance on many, in order that he may enjoy in a particular place an indulgence which could as well be enjoyed where no one else would be affected by it, be not a blackguard, who can be? What could indicate bad breeding and a bad heart, if such conduct does not? "Brethren!" said Parson Strong, of Hartford, preaching a Connecticut election sermon, in high party times, some fifty years ago, "it has been charged that I have said every Democrat is a horse-thief: I never did. What I did say was only that every horse-thief is a Democrat, and that I can prove." So I do not say that every smoker or chewer is necessarily a blackguard, however steep the proclivity that way; but show me a genuine blackguard -one of the b'hoys, and no mistake-who is not a lover of tobacco in some shape, and I will agree to find you two white black-birds.

HORACE GREELEY.

IV. TEMPERATE DRINKING.

From a pamphlet upon "Alcoholic Liquors: their Essential Nature and Necessary Effects on the Human Constitution," prepared by request of the National Division of the Sons of Temperance, and published in 1849.

I have aimed to demonstrate the physical evils of Temperate Drinking (as it is improperly called, since no drinking of liquids essentially poisonous for the sake of a sensual gratification can be truly Temperate) by other considerations than those connected with Drunkenness. It is very true that he who drinks, however moderately, is in danger of dying a drunkard; but if there were no such thing as drunkenness it would still be most unwise and culpable to drink. Indeed it has been forcibly argued that the physical evils of drinking would be greater if drunkenness were unknown. Inebriety dethrones the

reason, often making of a naturally inoffensive, good-natured man, a furious, raging fiend; but it does not orignate the mischief-it rather serves to expel and finish it. It is the demoniac spirit tearing his victim because commanded to come out of him. Thousands die prematurely every year in consequence of drinking who never were thoroughly drunk in their lives. One man drinks three glasses and loses his reason; another drinks six, or even ten, and seems wholly unaffected. Men say of the latter, "He has a strong head;" and cigar-puffing wine-bibbing youngsters are apt to envy him; yet he is far more likely to die in consequence of drinking than his neighbour whom three glasses knock over. The former retains the poison in his system, and it silently preys upon him; in the latter, Nature revolting at the deadly poison, makes a convulsive effort and throws it off. He is damaged by the liquor, but not by its ejectment, whatever he may fancy. Intoxication is a kindly though ungentle ministration whose object is relief and recovery. Drinking is not evil because it produces Intoxication, but Intoxication is ordained to limit the physical evils of Drinking. Let no free drinker, therefore, glory in his ability to drink much without Intoxication; for, in the natural course of events, he will need his coffin much sooner than if liquor easily overcame him.

If the propositions affirmed in this essay be true, how can any youth read them and yet become or continue a drinker of Alcoholic Liquors? Banish, if you can, all thought of God and His judgments-forget or deny your immortality-deride the idea of restricting or qualifying your own gratification for the sake of kindred, friends, country or raceregard yourself merely as an animal that has happened here to sport a brief summer, then utterly perish-and still is it not a palpable mistake to drink anything that intoxicates? Why should it intoxicate if it be not essentially a poison? Is there any other substance claimed to be innocent and wholesome in moderate quantities which drowns the reason if the amount taken be increased? Why seek enjoyment in such a perilous and dubious way-a path paved with the bones of millions after millions who have fallen in pursuing it-when innocent and healthful pleasures everywhere surround and invite you? Lived there ever a human being who regretted at death that he had through life refrained from the use of stimulating drinks? and how countless the millions who have with reason deplored such use as the primary, fatal mistake of their lives? Surely, from the radiant heavens above us, the dust once quickened beneath us, comes to the attentive ear a voice which impressively admonishes, BE WISE WHILE IT IS CALLED TO-DAY.

V. UNIVERSAL EDUCATION.

Mr. Greeley's lecture upon "Teachers and Teaching" concluded with the following paragraphs.

Universal education! grand inspiring idea! And shall there come a time when the delver in the mine and the rice-swamp, the orphans of the prodigal and the felon, and even the very offspring of shame, shall be truly, systematically educated? Glorious consummation! morning twilight of the Millennium! who will not joyfully labour and court sacrifices, and suffer reproach, if he may hasten, by even so much as a day, its blessed coming? Who will not take courage from a contemplation of what the last century has seen accomplished, if not in absolute results, yet in preparing the approaches, in removing impediments, in correcting and expanding the popular comprehension of the work to be done and the feasibility of doing it? Whatever of evil and of suffering the Future may have in store for us-though the earth be destined yet to be plowed by the sword and fertilized by human gore until rank growths of the deadliest weeds shall overshadow it, stifling into premature decay every plant most conductive to health or fragrance-the time shall surely come when universal and true Education shall dispel the dense night of ignorance and perverseness that now enshrouds the vast majority of the Human Race-shall banish evil and wretchedness almost wholly from earth by removing or unmasking the multiform temptations to wrong-doing-shall put an end to Robbery, Hatred, Oppression, and War, by diffusing widely and thoroughly a living consciousness