all laborers are either hired laborers, or what we call slaves, and, further, it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer, is fixed in that condition for life.

Now there is no such relation between capital and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them are groundless.

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between capital and labor, producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of a community exists within that relation.

A few men own capital and those few avoid labor, themselves; and, with their capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority belong to neither classneither work for others, nor have others work for them.

In most of the Southern states a majority of the whole people of all colors, are neither slaves nor masters; while in the Northern, a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men, with their families-wives, sons and daughters-work for themselves on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor with capital-that is, they labor with their own hands, and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but this is only a mixed, and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the exist ence of the mixed class.

Again, as has already been said, there is not of necessity any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to

that condition for life. Many independent men, everywhere in these states, a few years back in their lives were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner in the world, labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy, and progress, and improvement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty-none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost."

And I recollect when he visited New England in 1859, that a strike was then going on in the manufacturing districts of Connecticut, to which Mr. Lincoln adverted, and used substantially this language (I speak only from memory): “I read in the papers that a 'strike' (as it is called), is in progress in Connecticut and that some of its opposers call it 'bushwhacking;' well, I must confess that I like that kind of 'bushwhacking;' I like to have men quit work when they get tired; the difference between our system of labor and that prevalent in the South is, that here our workingmen can quit when and for what cause (or for no cause) they have a mind to."

Attempts latterly have been made by reformers of the ultra sort, to taint Mr. Lincoln with communism; but the only public utterances he ever made on the subject of labor were those quoted above.

He knew very well that our social and industrial conditions after the war would need the guiding hand of states

manship, and there were three matters that occupied the last days of his life, and to the consideration and solution of which he was devoting all the powers of his master mind. They were as follows, viz.:

1. To colonize the negroes in Liberia or Central America, the experiment of colonizing them in Hayti and South America having failed.

2. To foster a general working of our gold and silver mines by our disbanded soldiers.

3. To produce gold and silver in such immense quantities that we could pay off the public debt as fast as possible. As to the negro, he judged the future by the past and present; in his native land, he employed no systematic industry, but subsisted on the spontaneous fruits of a tropical climate or by the spoils of the chase, and in this country he was content to live from hand to mouth, with no idea of prevision for the future; their presence aroused the prejudices and excited the animosity of the whites; if the negro is removed from our midst, our homogeneity will be complete; and our autonomy stable; if he remains amongst us, on any terms, future disaster is probable. Such was this astute man's opinion.

He thought that the training and camp life of our soldiers admirably fitted them for the adventure, perils and excitement of a life at the mineral regions; that the license of the camp could receive freer vent there than in the bosom of ordinary society; and that more individual wealth, and consequently more national or aggregate wealth, would accrue thus, than in the usual and ordinary avocations of life.

And finally he knew that our nation, the richest in the auriferous and argentiferous ores, was at that moment the poorest in coin of any enlightened nation; and he reasoned that if the metals were produced, that the nation itself would be so much the richer through the affluence of individuals, and that the day of resumption would be hastened, and the national debt sooner extinguished.

On the vital subject of providing for the negro, his mind was beclouded with anxiety; on that of employing the soldiers, at the mines, he was enthusiastic; he had great faith and unlimited confidence in his own race; but he rated the negro at his worth, and by the Ethiopian record of thousands of years.

In an address to the New York workingmen, he thus repelled any possibility of socialistic tendencies:

"Nor should this lead to a war on property, or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should become rich shows that others may become rich; and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build one for himself; thus, by example, assuring that his own shall be safe from violence, when built."

And whenever he could inculcate in the minds of the working classes exhortations to improvement, or to proper advancement in life, he was sedulous to do so. I recollect he once assured an audience of that kind, that any child of theirs had the same right and prospect his father's son had, to reach the presidency. He recognized in the improvement of the masses, the true index to a nation of stability; and with Carlyle, he felt that, "The neutralizing power to prevent a social explosion, must be the improvement of the condition of the working classes. Indeed, this is the problem of the age, involving that other one, of whether we shall have social crash and chaos. Could any man, statesman or other, satisfactorily solve the problem, he would be a benefactor to the race. But the probabilities are, that no one man will solve itthat it admits of no one-idead solution:-that many men will have to contribute their thoughts-many things work their results to its solution."

He had a great contempt for speculators, or any who tried to evade honest labor, and to live by their wits. The eagerness, venality and covetousness of office seekers, he thoroughly despised. One day, before he became President, he said: "Mankind has a propensity to be constantly wriggling for office, a desire from which I am not exempt myself."

And after he became President, he said: "Sitting here, where all the avenues to public patronage seem to come together in a knot, it does seem to me that our people are fast approaching the point where it can be said, that seveneighths of them were trying how to live at the expense of the other eighth."

The undecided question of what are the true functions of government is a vexed and extremely difficult one; and every variety and shade of belief exists among political writers, casuists and moral philosophers on that subject.

One class would limit the functions of government to repressing crime; still another would make it absolutely paternal-performing every function of society: and all sorts and shades of theories between these two extremes. One would withhold any aid in the collection of debts; another is for a permanent bankrupt law: still another is for affixing penalties to delinquency in liquidating indebtedness. One class insists that the government shall be the sole bank of issue; another that the government shall own and operate all the railways, telegraphs and expresses. A considerable school of political philosophers has been established, having for the basis of its political belief, the dogma that all lands should be seized and owned by the government: the theory being that the "earth and the fullness thereof," embracing mines, forests and quarries, should belong to the community, just as air and water now do.

And the Senate of the United States, a few days since, was treated to the bizarre spectacle of a man who had made $100,000,000 by government subsidies, gravely asking the nation to take as much of the taxes of the people as he had