In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Lincoln and Union, 1861 231 our transactions with your Government, and that nothing will be omitted on my part to make your residence in this capital agreeable to yourself and satisfactory to your Government. "THE STRUGGLE OF TODAY ... FOR A VAST FUTURE ALSO" From the Annual Message to Congress [DECEMBER 3, 1861] Personally delivered State of the Union messages were not yet part of American government tradition during Lincoln's time. Annual messages from the president, as they were then called, were merely transmitted to Capitol Hill and read by a clerk. One can only imagine how Lincoln's highly personal style suffered in the delivery. This, his first annual message , focused on the threat of foreign intervention; boasted of a $2.257 million budget surplus; and, in the extract presented here, turned to a favorite Lincoln theme: the relationship between labor and capital. The New York Tribune commended the President for recognizing that the rebellion constituted "a war upon the . .. politicalfranchises ofthe poor. " It continues to develop that the insurrection is largely, if not exclusively , a war upon the first principle of popular government-the rights of the people. Conclusive evidence of this is found in the most grave and maturely considered public documents, as well as in the general tone of the insurgents. In those documents we find the abridgment of the existing right of suffrage and the denial to the people of all right to participate in the selection of public officers, except the legislative[,] boldly advocated, with labored arguments to prove that large control ofthe 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 232 LINCOLN ON DEMOCRACY 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 connexions, 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, ifnot above labor. in the structure of government. It is assumed that labor is available only in connexion 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 ofcapital, 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 ofthe whole people ofall 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 capitalthat is, they labor with their own hands, and...

Share