12 



ADDRESS. 



In our Southern States the conflict has been very severe, and 

 the question is not yet fully determined. 



The men who founded Jamestown, believed in money, and family 

 and blood ; — the men who established themselves at Plymouth, 

 believed in the man more than in money ; — in the man more 

 than in his ancestry ; in the man more than in his blood. And 

 the conflict has been waxing warmer and warmer for more than 

 seventy years, which of the descendants of the two races should 

 be recognized as American. The conflict culminated in a resort 

 to arms, in which the Puritan race was triumphant and man Avas 

 recognized above the fortunes of birth or the influences of wealth. 

 Thus the American government, in the breaking up of the insti- 

 tution of slavery and in recognizing the equality of men, nation- 

 alized labor and gave it the preference of capital. It said to the 

 world in a language of no doubtful interpretation, " a man is a 

 man," no matter for birth ; no matter for wealth ; no matter 

 for lands or titles ; manhood is the criterion by which man shall 

 be tested, and in the race for wealth, for honors, for emolu- 

 ments, there shall be no drawbacks because fortune failed to 

 smile on the infant brow that was kissed for the first time by the 

 air of this Western World. 



In America, for the first time in the history of the world, cap- 

 ital has failed to dictate the wages of labor. The laborer has 

 for the first time, been able to meet the capitalist on a common 

 ground, and arrange his own terms and place" his own estimate 

 on the value of his services. This recognized right, has given 

 a dignity to labor, which has elevated the laborer by making 

 common to him the rio;ht to knowledo;e and the uses of knowl- 

 edge. Labor, — American Labor, — has thus made subservi- 

 ent to its uses, the school ; the academy ; the college and the uni- 

 versity. It has commanded and received protection from the 

 Legislature, the Executive and the Judicial departments of the 

 government. It has adorned not only these departments of the 

 government, but all the professions and the industries which are 

 developed by the cultivation and study of the most intricate of the 

 arts and sciences. The lumberman of the Mississippi Valley 



