people in government 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 approach of returning despotism.

It is not needed nor fitting here that a general argument should be made
in favor of popular institutions, but there is one point, with its
connections, not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a brief
attention. 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 some-body else, owning capital, somehow by the use of it induces
him to labor. 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 concluded 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
inferences from them are groundless.

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit
of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.
Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher
consideration. 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 community 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
themselv