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Lincoln and the Race for President, 1859-1860 159 must penetrate the human soul and eradicate the love of liberty; but until they did these things, and others eloquently enumerated by him, they could not repress all tendencies to ultimate emancipation. I ask attention to the fact that in a pre-eminent degree these popular sovereigns are at this work; blowing out the moral lights around us; teaching that the negro is no longer a man but a brute; that the Declaration has nothing to do with him; that he ranks with the crocodile and the reptile; that man, with body and soul, is a matter of dollars and cents. I suggest to this portion of the Ohio RepUblicans, or Democrats if there be any present, the serious consideration of this fact, that there is now going on among you a steady process of debauching public opinion on this subject. With this my friends, I bid you adieu. "EQUALITY . .. BEATS INEQUALITY" Fragment on Free Labor [SEPTEMBER 17, 18 59?] This fragment may have been preparedfor a speech scheduledfor Cincinnati , another stop on Lincoln's Ohio speaking tour. . . . Equality, in society, alike beats inequality, whether the lat[t]er be of the British aristocratic sort, or of the domestic slavery sort. We know, Southern men declare that their slaves are better off than hired laborers amongst us. How little they know, whereof they speak! There is no permanent class of hired laborers amongst us. Twentyfive years ago, I was a hired laborer. The hired laborer of yesterday, labors on his own account to-day; and will hire others to labor for him tomorrow . Advancement-improvement in condition-is the order of things in a society of equals. As Labor is the common burthen of our race, so the effect of some to shift their share of the burthen on to the 160 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY shoulders of others, is the great, durable, curse of the race. Originally a curse for transgression upon the whole race, when, as by slavery, it is concentrated on a part only, it becomes the double-refined curse of God upon his creatures. Free labor has the inspiration of hope; pure slavery has no hope. The power of hope upon human exertion, and happiness, is wonderful. The slave-master himself has a conception of it; and hence the system of tasks among slaves. The slave whom you can not drive with the lash to break seventy-five pounds of hemp in a day, if you will task him to break a hundred, and promise him pay for all he does over, he will break you a hundred and fifty. You have substituted hope, for the rod. And yet perhaps it does not occur to you, that to the extent of your gain in the case, you have given up the slave system, and adopted the free system of labor. "FREE LABOR ... GIVES HOPE TO ALL" From an Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin [SEPTEMBER 30, 1859] This was Lincoln's most comprehensive discussion of labor and capital, and his sharpest criticism of the so-called "mudsill" theory, which held that labor was fixed in its subordinate position for life. Lincoln also took pains to appeal to his audience by extolling the virtues offarming, for which, in reality, he had a disdain bordering on repugnance. The world is agreed that labor is the source from which human wants are mainly supplied. There is no dispute upon this point. From this point, however, men immediately diverge. Much disputation is maintained as to the best way of applying and controlling the labor element. By some it is assumed that labor is available only in connection with ...

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