Dignity of Free Labor. 313 



in this State, to saj he's a workin' man. That he 

 aims his bread by the labor of his hands, because tho' 

 he keeps busy all the long day, there's nothing servile 

 in his labor. He occupies his own place in the world, 

 and is just as independent in his feelin's, in his 

 thoughts, and opinions, and just as likely to be rich, 

 and high in office twenty years hence, as the next 

 man. But in slave States it ain't so, and can't, ac- 

 cordin' to nater, be so. Free labor can't exist right 

 alongside of slave labor, without robbin' it of its dig- 

 nity, and makin' it a disgrace. In them States, the 

 work is done hy the slaves, and they are a contemned 

 and a despised race. The slave works ; and the rich 

 and proud people take up the notion, that every man 

 that works must be looked upon just like a slave, he- 

 cause he works. They've a notion that a man who 

 can't or won't own a slave to do his work for him, 

 ain't of much account any how, and they look down 

 u]Don him, as one lower down oi tiie ladder of respec- 

 tability than themselves. They make him eat at the 

 second table, and take their own leavin's at that, and 

 that's a thing, Squire, a free American don't often feel 

 inclined to stand. Will anybody tell us, Squire, why 



old Virginia, that was the greatest, the richest, and 



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