612 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



a unanimous concurrence. The designation of General 

 McClellan is, therefore, in considerable degree, the se- 

 lection of the country as well as of the Executive ; and 

 hence there is better reason to hope there will be given 

 him the confidence and cordial support thus, by fair 

 implication, promised, and without which he cannot, 

 with so full efficiency, serve the country. 



It has been said that one bad General is better than 

 two good ones ; and the saying is true, if taken to 

 mean no more than that an army is better directed by 

 a single mind, though inferior, than by two superior 

 ones, at variance and cross-purposes with each other. 



And the same is true in all joint operations, wherein 

 those engaged can have none but a common end in 

 view, and can differ only as to the choice of means. 

 In a storm at sea, no one ou board can wish the .ship 

 to sink ; and yet, not unfrequently all go down togeth- 

 er, because too many will direct, and no single mind 

 can be allowed to control. 



It continues to develop that the insurrection is large- 

 ly, if not exclusively, a war upon the first principle of 

 popular government the rights of the people. Con- 

 clusive 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 docu- 

 ments 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 argu- 

 ments to prove that large control of the people in gov- 

 ernment 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 ap- 

 proach of returning despotism. 



It is not needed, nor fitting here, that a general ar- 

 gument should be made in favor of popular institu- 

 tions ; but there is one point, with its connections, not 

 so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief at- 

 tention. 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 Tabor. 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 con- 

 cluded 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 in- 

 ferences from them are groundless. 



Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Cap- 

 ital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have ex- 

 isted if labor had not first existed. Labor is the supe- 

 rior of capita], and deserves much the higher consid- 

 eration. 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 com- 

 munity 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.prod- 

 uct 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 dis- 

 turbed by the existence of this mixed class. 



Again : as has already been said, there is not of ne- 

 cessity 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 be- 

 ginner 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 in- 

 clined to take or touch aught which they have not hon- 

 estly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a po- 

 litical 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. A\ e 

 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, 

 two hundred and fifty millions. 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. 



IXAUGTJEAL ADDRESS of President Jefferson 

 Davis. 



Gentlemen of the Congress of the Confederate 



States of America, Friends, and Fellow-Citizens : 



Called to the difficult and responsible station of Chief 

 Executive of the Provisional Government which you 

 have instituted, I approach the discharge of the duties 

 assigned me with an humble distrust of my abilities, 

 but with a sustaining confidence in the wisdom of 

 those who are to guide and aid me in the adminis- 

 tration of public affairs, and an abiding faith in the 

 virtue and patriotism of the people. Looking forward 

 to the speedy establishment of a permanent Govern- 

 ment to take the place of this, and which by its greater 

 moral and physical power will be better able to combat 

 with the many difficulties which arise from the con- 

 flicting interests of separate nations, I enter upon the 

 duties of the office to which I have been chosen, with 

 the hope that the beginning of our career as a Confed- 

 eracy may not be obstructed by hostile opposition to 

 our enjoyment of the separate existence and inde- 

 pendence which we have asserted, and which, with 

 the blessing of Providence, we intend to maintain. 



Our present condition, achieved in a manner unpre- 

 cedented in the history of nations, illustrates the Amer- 

 ican idea that Governments rest upon the consent of 

 the governed, and that it is the right of the people to 

 alter and abolish Governments whenever they become 

 destructive to the ends for which they were established. 

 The declared compact of the Union from which we 

 have withdrawn was to establish justice, ensure do- ' 

 mestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, 

 promote the general welfare, and secure the blesMn^.s 

 of liberty to ourselves and our posterity ; and when 

 in the judgment Of the sovereign States now com- 



