the
abolitionists) would begin it with the laboring class; and if I
understand the Senator correctly, that abolitionism, by throwing
together the white and the black laborers, would naturally produce
this result. Sir, I regret, I deplore, that such a charge should be
made against the laboring class--that class which tills the ground;
and, in obedience to the decree of their Maker, eat their bread in
the sweat of their face--that class, as Mr. Jefferson says, if God has
a chosen people on earth, they are those who thus labor. This charge
is calculated for effect, to induce the laboring class to believe,
that if emancipation takes place, they will be, in the free States,
reduced to the same condition as the colored laborer. The reverse of
that is the truth of the case. It is the slaveholder NOW, he who looks
upon labor as only fit for a servile race, it is him and his kindred
spirits who live upon the labor of others, endeavoring to reduce the
white laborer to the condition of the slave. They do not yet claim him
as property, but they would exclude him from all participation in the
public affairs of the country. It is further said, that if the negroes
were free, the black would rival the white laborer in the free States.
I cannot believe it, while so many facts exist to prove the contrary.
Negroes, like the white race, but with stronger feelings, are attached
to the place of their birth, and the home of their youth; and the
climate of the South is congenial to their natures, more than that of
the North. If emancipation should take place at the South--and the
negro be freed from the fear of being made merchandize, they would
remove from the free States of the North and West, immediately return
to that country, because it is the home of their friends and fathers.
Already in Ohio, as far as my knowledge extends, has free white labor,
(emigrants,) from foreign countries, engrossed almost entirely all
situations in which male or female labor is found. But, sir, this plea
of necessity and convenience is the plea of tyrants. Has not the free
black person the same right to the use of his hands as the white
person: the same right to contract and labor for what price he
pleases? Would the gentleman extend the power of the government to the
regulation of the productive industry of the country? This was his
former theory, but put down effectually by the public voice. Taking
advantage of the prejudice against labor, the attempt is now