State of the Union | Page 9

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
machiney, 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