and they must do as they please with their own. I believe, however, they are still resolved to preserve their country and their liberty; and in this office I am resolved to stand by them."

ADDRESS TO THE 149TH OHIO REGIMENT, FALL OF 1864.

"But this government must be preserved, in spite of the acts of any man or set of men. It is worthy your every effort. Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privileges and positions. The present moment finds me at the White House, yet there is as good a chance for your children as there was for my father's."

OF LABOR.

MR. LINCOLN began life as a day laborer, under the hardest conditions, toiling for scanty and often uncertain wages. The bond of fellowship between him and all other workingmen, the world over, was never broken. They were peculiarly his people, and it was for them and with them that he believed himself to be still working. That they understood him and continually regarded him as one of themselves, was a most important element in his political influence, in his power to control and direct national affairs. There was, however, so little of the demagogue in his nature that he simply took their

appreciation for granted and his utterances concerning labor and laboring men were brief and few in number."

SPEECH AT CINCINNATI, O., SEPT., 1859.

"That there is a certain relation between capital and labor, I admit. That it does exist, and rightfully exists, I think is true. That men who are industrious, and sober, and honest, in the pursuit of their own interests, should after awhile accumulate capital, and after that should be allowed to enjoy it in peace, and also, if they should choose, when they have accumulated it, to use it to save themselves from actual labor and hire other people to labor for them, is right. In doing so they do not wrong the men they employ, for they find men who have not of their own land to work on or

shops to work in, and who are benefited by working for others, as hired laborers, receiving their capital for it. Thus, a few men that own capital hire a few others, and these establish the relations of capital and labor rightfully. A relation of which I make no complaint. But I insist that the relation

after all does not embrace more

than one eighth of the labor of the country."

ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS,
DEC., 1861.

"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."