participate in the selection of public officers except the legislative boldly advocated, with labored arguments to prove that large control of the people in government is the source of all political evil. Monarchy itself is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. In my present position I could scarcely be justified were I to omit raising a warning voice against this approach of returning despotism. It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument should be made in favor of popular institutions, but there is one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief attention. It is the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not above, labor in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy them and drive them to it without their consent. Having proceeded so far, it is naturally concluded that 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 labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority belong to neither class-neither work for others nor have others working 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 existence of this 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. From the first taking of our national census to the last are seventy years, and we find our population at the end of the period eight times as great as it was at the beginning. The increase of those other things which men deem desirable has been even greater. We thus have at one view what the popular principle, applied to Government through the machinery of the States and the Union, has produced in a given time, and also what if firmly maintained it promises for the future. There are already among us those who if the Union be preserved will live to see it contain 250,000,000. The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day; it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. SPECIAL MESSAGES. WASHINGTON, December 4, 1861. To the House of Representatives: I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, in reply to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 31st July last, upon the subject of increasing and extending trade and commerce of the United States with foreign countries. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. To the House of Representatives: WASHINGTON, December 4, 1861. I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, in reply to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th July last, in relation to the correspondence between this Government and foreign nations respecting the rights of blockade, privateering, and the recognition of the so-called Confederate States. To the Senate of the United States: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, December 5, 1861. · I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty between the United States of America and His Majesty the King of Hanover, concerning the abolition of the Stade or Brunshausen dues, signed at Berlin on the 6th November, 1861. To the House of Representatives: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, December 9, 1861. I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, in reply to the resolution of the House of the 4th instant, relative to the intervention of certain European powers in the affairs of Mexico. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. To the Senate of the United States: EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, December 14, 1861. In compliance with the resolution of your honorable body "that the President be requested to furnish to the Senate copies of the charges, testimony, and finding of the recent court of inquiry in the case of Colonel Dixon S. Miles, of the United States Army," I have the honor to transmit herewith the copies desired, which have been procured from the War Department. To the Senate of the United States: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, December 16, 1861. I submit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to ratification, the amendments introduced by the Constituent National Assembly of Bolivia in its decree of ratification into the treaty of peace, friendship, commerce, and navigation concluded with that Republic on the 13th of May, 1858, an official translation of which decree accompanies this message, with the original treaty. As the time within which the exchange of ratifications should be effected is limited, I recommend, in view of the delay which must necessarily occur and the difficulty of reaching the seat of Government of that Republic, that the time within which such exchange shall take place be extended in the following terms: "Within such period as may be mutually convenient to both Governments." ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, December 17, 1861. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit to the Senate and House of Representatives copies of the correspondence between the Secretary of State, Secretary of War, and the governor of the State of Maine on the subject of the fortification of the seacoast and Lakes. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. To the Senate of the United States: WASHINGTON, December 17, 1861. I transmit to the Senate, for its advice, a copy of a draft for a convention with the Republic of Mexico, proposed to the Government of that Republic by Mr. Corwin, the minister of the United States accredited to that Government, together with the correspondence relating to it. As the subject is of momentous interest to the two Governments at this juncture, the early consideration of it by the Senate is very desirable. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, December 20, 1861. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit to Congress a letter from the secretary of the executive committee of the commission appointed to represent the interests of those American citizens who may desire to become exhibitors at the industrial exhibition to be held in London in 1862, and a memorial of that commission, with a report of the executive committee thereof and copies of circulars announcing the decisions of Her Majesty's commissioners in London, giving directions to be observed in regard to articles intended for exhibition, and also of circular forms of application, demands for space, approvals, etc., according to the rules prescribed by the British commissioners. As these papers fully set forth the requirements necessary to enable those citizens of the United States who may wish to become exhibitors to avail themselves of the privileges of the exhibition, I commend them to your early consideration, especially in view of the near approach of the time when the exhibition will begin. To the House of Representatives: ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, December 23, 1861. In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th July last, requesting information respecting the Asiatic cooly trade, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, with the documents which accompanied it. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, December 30, 1861. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit to Congress a correspondence which has taken place between the Secretary of State and authorities of Great Britain and France on the subject of the recent removal of certain citizens of the United States from the British mail steamer Trent by order of Captain Wilkes, in command of the United States war steamer San Jacinto. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, January 2, 1862. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit to Congress a copy of a letter to the Secretary of State from James R. Partridge, secretary to the executive committee to the industrial exhibition to be held in London in the course of the present year, and a copy of the correspondence to which it refers, relative to a vessel for the purpose of taking such articles as persons in this country may wish to exhibit on that occasion. As it appears that no naval vessel can be spared for the purpose, I recommend that authority be given to charter a suitable merchant vessel, in order that facilities similar to those afforded by the Government for the exhibition of 1851 may also be extended to those citizens of the United States who may desire to contribute to the exhibition of this year. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, D. C., January 3, 1862. To the Senate of the United States: I transmit to the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a treaty concluded on the 15th November, 1861, between William W. Ross, agent on the part of the United States, and the chiefs and headmen of the tribe of Pottawatomie Indians, with accompanying communications from the Secretary of the Interior and Commissioner of Indian Affairs, the latter of which proposes certain modifications of said treaty, which are also referred for the consideration of the Senate. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, January 10, 1862. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit to Congress a translation of an instruction to the minister of His Majesty the Emperor of Austria accredited to this Government, and a copy of a note to that minister from the Secretary of State, relative to the questions involved in the taking from the British steamer James M. Mason and John Slidell, Confederate envoys to England and France, respectively, and two others. |