280 [Assembly 



Shall our professional men — our lawyers, for instance — who de- 

 rive their support from the productive labor of the country, but con- 

 tribute nothing to it by their own hands, and whose business is not 

 injured by foreign competition — shall they ask or desire that Ameri- 

 can manufactures shall maintain an unequal contest for the supply 

 of our own home market, with foreign laborers who live upon pota- 

 toes? 



Shall our gentlemen, who live sumptuously every day, and who 

 do nothing for the general good — shall our hosts of officers, State 

 and National, in all the departments of our government, who live 

 upon salaries drawn from the products of labor — shall they wish 

 that our laborers engaged in manufactures, should work at the low 

 rate of wages paid to the famished operatives of Europe? Be as- 

 sured that men who would willingly see our laborers reduced to the 

 condition of those of Europe, never mean to labor themselves, but to 

 live as cheaply as possible upon the labor of others. 



It is the true interest of all classes, that labor should receive its 

 just reward. In that case, thousands W'ho now spend their time, 

 from year to year, in the idle pursuit of petty offices — thousands 

 of surplus merchants, whose business affords neither benefit to the 

 public, nor profit to themselves, and thousands engaged in the learn- 

 ed professions, doing nothing, would resort to honest labor, and thus 

 add to the prosperity of the country, to which they are now a bur- 

 den. 



The poor rates of Great Britain amount annually to more than 

 the whole revenue of the United States, and probably an equal 

 amount is raised by contributions from individuals and charitable 

 societies; and yet, the laboring classes are reduced to the most abject 

 poverty, attended with a frightful amount of vice and crime. How 

 much better, nay, how much cheaper would it be for those who pay 

 such enormous sums for charitable purposes, that the laboring classes 

 should receive a fair compensation for their services, and that the 

 consumer should pay a fair price for the products of their labor! 

 This would at once put an ^nd to nine-tenths of the poor rates and 

 charitable contributions, and to a large portion of the vice and crime 

 which are inseparable -from extreme poverty. But this would break 

 up the selfish system of Great Britain, of levying, by means of her 

 cheap manufactures, contributions upon all nations who trade with 

 her, and who have the folly to leave their own industry unprotected. 

 And this again, would make it necessary to reduce the wages of the 



