730 THE IMPENDING REVOLUTION. 



tion for their labor, they will have good houses, good 

 clothing, good food, and the means of educating their 

 families. L,abor will be cheerful and the people happy. 

 The great interest of this country is labor, labor, LABOR. 

 Daniel Webster, in 1837. 



"I affirm it as my conviction that class laws, placing 

 capital above labor, endangers the Republic more fatally 

 at this hour than chattel slavery in the days of its 

 haughtiest supremacy. The effort to place capital above 

 labor will shake the Republic, and when the attempt 

 grows into law it will be used to fasten still greater bur- 

 dens upon the people until all liberty is lost." Abraham 

 Lincoln's letter to Ellis. 



The above quotations from eminent authorities em- 

 phasize the importance of enacting laws for the protection 

 and encouragement of labor as well as the important rela- 

 tion which labor bears towards the prosperity of the 

 country and the perpetuation of its free institutions. 



u lt now remains to discuss and indicate such meas- 

 ures as would renovate our resources and re-establish 

 industrial prosperity. We are well aware that in the dis- 

 cussion of this subject we have many opinions to combat 

 which honestly differ from us, among which is the one 

 prevailing sentiment, due to the teachings of politicians 

 and a partisan press, that the tariff question is the "great 

 and overshadowing issue," and that upon its adjustment 

 depends the weal or woe of the American workingmen. 

 This theory we feel we must successfully combat before we 

 can make any perceptible advance towards political reform. 

 That the tariff question is one of very grave importance 

 we do not pretend to deny. We do not intend to again 

 attempt a discussion of its merits here. That has been 

 done to some extent in another chapter. But we do be- 

 lieve that the leaders, the controlling influence of both of 

 the great political parties, have conspired to press this 



