the slave-owners; and one of his last acts, before reluctantly consenting to issue an Emancipation Proclamation as a war measure, was to secure from Congress a pledge of national coöperation with the slave-holders of the loyal States, if they would consent to gradual emancipation with compensation. The Abolitionists proclaimed as a fundamental principle, "No union with slave-holders." Lincoln, in the midst of the Civil War, wrote to Horace Greeley, "If I could

save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that.' Lincoln was not an Abolitionist: because he had charity for the slaveholder for whom the Abolitionist had no charity; because he honored the Constitution which the Abolitionists denounced; because he used every endeavor to persuade the nation to assume its share of responsibility for slavery, and its share of the burden involved in emancipation, from which the Abolitionists endeavored in vain to escape; and because he endured four as sad years as ever have fallen to the lot of any man in order that he might save the Union which the Abolitionists wished to destroy. And yet to the principle, "No further extension of slavery on American soil," he gave himself with uncompromising consecration. For that principle he hazarded his own political fortunes, the fortunes of his party, and the life of the nation. To all remonstrances urging compromise upon him after his election, his answer was the same, "On the Territorial question [that is, the question of extending slavery under national auspices] I am inflexible."

I have said that the slavery question was one phase of the labor question. So said Lincoln, nearly half a century ago. "The existing rebellion," he wrote to a Committee from the Working Men's Association of New York, " is in fact a war upon the rights of all working people." To what conclusion would his principles and his spirit lead upon the Labor Question as it is presented to us in our times?

We may be sure that he who never denounced the slaveholder, who never did anything to intensify the profound ire of South against North or North against South, would enter

into no class war, would never denounce the rich to the poor or the poor to the rich. He who told the farmers of Wisconsin that the reason why there were more attempts to flatter them than any other class was because they could cast more votes, but that to his thinking they were neither better nor worse than other people, would never flatter the mechanic class to win for himself or his party a labor vote. He who, in 1864, held with workingmen that "the strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, should be one uniting all working people, of all nations, and tongues, and kindreds," would not condemn labor unions. He who, at the same time, said to them, "Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself," would have condemned all lawless acts of violence, whether against the employer of labor or the non-union laborer who is employed. He who thanked God that we have a system of labor where there can be a strike— a point where the workingman may stop working-would not deny this right to the workingman of to-day. He who said, in 1860, "I don't believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich," and who did believe in "allowing the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with any one else," would have found, not in war upon the wealthy, but in equal opportunity for all, the remedy for social and industrial inequalities. He who condemned the mudsill theory, the theory that labor and education are incompatible and that "a blind horse upon a treadmill is a perfect illustration of what a laborer should be, all the better for being blind, so that he could not kick understandingly," would be the earnest advocate of child-labor laws and industrial education. He who argued that "As the Author of man makes every individual with one head and one pair of hands, it was probably intended that heads and hands should coöperate as friends, and that that particular head should direct and control that pair of hands," would believe in coöperation between labor and capital, leading on to the time when laborers should become capitalists and all capitalists should become laborers. He who held, in 1854, that "the legitimate object of government is 'to do for the

people what needs to be done, but which they cannot, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves,' would neither believe in the night-watchman theory of government which allows it to do nothing but police duty, nor in the socialistic theory of government which leaves nothing for individual effort to do for itself.

Two solutions of the labor problem present themselves in our time for our acceptance. One is capitalism, or the wages system: that a few shall always own the tools and implements with which industry is carried on-these are capitalists-and that the many shall always carry on the industry with these tools and implements for wages paid by their owners. This makes the mass of men always wage-laborers, dependent upon a few. The other is State socialism: that the government shall own all the tools and implements of industry, and allot to the various members of the community their respective industries and compensations. This makes all individuals wage-earners employed by an organization, the City, State, or Nation, in the control of which it is assumed all will share. Neither of these solutions would Lincoln have accepted. Neither of these solutions did he accept. No solution would he have accepted which made the workingman, whether he works with brain or with hand, a perpetual wage-earner, fixed in that condition for life, and forever dependent for his livelihood upon any employer, whether private or political. He did not believe in a perpetual employment of the many by a few capitalists; he would not have believed in a perpetual employment of all by one capitalist-the State or the Nation. He believed in a fair field and an open door through which every workingman may become a capitalist, every wageearner may become his own employer.

In his first Annual Message, Lincoln stated with great clearness his solution of the labor problem. To that statement he attached such importance that he repeated it two years and a half later in his letter to the Working Men's Association of New York. The importance he attached to this statement of his faith justifies my reading it at some length:

"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 the community exists within that relation. There

is not, of necessity, any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men everywhere in these States, a few years back in their lives, were hired laborers. The prudent penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile. and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to allgives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress, and improvement of condition to all."

Many years ago I delivered an address to a deaf and dumb audience. The congregation fixed their attention upon the interpreter at my side. They looked at him. Through him they heard me. My ambition this afternoon has been to efface myself and bid you listen to the invisible orator who stands by my side with his sad face, his resolute conscience, his human sympathies, and his simple, sincere English. What he would say, if you could hear him, would be, I think, what he said in 1860 to the capitalists and workingmen of New Haven:

"I am not ashamed to confess that twenty-five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flatboat-just what might happen to any poor man's son. I want every man to have the chanceand I believe a black man is entitled to it-in which he can better his condition-when he may look forward and hope to be a hired laborer this year and the next, work for himself afterward, and finally to hire men to work for him. That is the true system. . Then you can better your condition, and so it may go on and on in one ceaseless round so long as man exists on the face of the earth."

This is Abraham Lincoln's solution of the labor problem.

IT

ONE OF THE PLAIN PEOPLE

HON. CHAUNCEY M. DEPEW

T is eminently fitting that the birthday of Abraham Lincoln should be celebrated by the Grand Army of the Republic. It was at his call, as President, that the first seventy-five thousand men enlisted to save the Union. Afterward, on other appeals, the cry, "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more," rang through every city, village, and hamlet in the land; and forth from the fields, the workshop, the factory, the store, and the office went these followers of Abraham Lincoln to fight for the preservation of the Union. In every way in which a great ruler can alleviate the horrors of war and care for his soldiers, Abraham Lincoln rendered to them, as a body and individually, all the service in his power. They were ever in that great heart of his, and an appeal on their behalf would cause him to lay aside every duty, no matter how great, to encourage, rescue

or save.

We read much in these days of the lack of opportunity for young men. It is claimed that the difficulty of earning a living or of getting ahead increases year by year, but to all who despair, all who are discouraged, all who have a spark of ambition, the life of Abraham Lincoln is an example and inspiration. There is no youth in this audience to-night, and very few, if any, in all this land, who are surrounded with such discouraging conditions as those which were the lot and part of Abraham Lincoln from the time of his birth until he had passed his twenty-fifth year. He was born in a log cabin of one room with a dirt floor, on a farm so sterile that it was impossible for his father to make a living. When he was seven years old the family moved upon government land in the forests of Indiana, and at that tender age he assisted