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Communications: For The Signal Of Liberty: Abolition Of Slav...

Communications: For The Signal Of Liberty: Abolition Of Slav... image Communications: For The Signal Of Liberty: Abolition Of Slav... image
Parent Issue
Day
5
Month
June
Year
1843
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Messus. Editor?: - My forrner communicajn concludcd wiih apromise to exhibn thebesl eans of miiking axl l.xbok free! Witii your rther indulgence, I attempt it here. Sltivc labor is far from being the only labor ot free. Millions of laborera, in countrie3 theostically free, are, by the scourge of want, as ffectually iorced to toil, as are our southern laves by thebloody lash. Between Englandand ur slave states, the difference is this: There, ie laborcr is worked, tyrannized and starved, inder the name of England's free bom son. - Tere the southern laborcr is worked, tyrannized ind fed, under the name of perpetual slave.- As degrading and revolting - as repugnant to our professedly free institutions as negro slavery is - as much as it dsgrace3 a nation boasting of the freedom of i is laborera - stil!, tho white slaves of England are more wretchediy oppressed than the black and yellow slaves ol ths soutii. Our countrymen who own slaves, usc theni üke Iheir 3erviceable bensts, and care far ihem in mfkncy, ago and sicknets, though it be a heartlesa care. During the same periods and the long ones of suspended busines?, the wearefè of the galling Bri'ish yoke are left to languish. starve and die. There. labor is worae than brutalized - here, it is reduced to the condition of the brute. Theso servitudes are momentous and abhorrent; but, gentlemen, to meit is perfect!y"!obvious, they are DOt the point to which the efiorts of the abolitioms: sliould be directed. In the cure of an evil, is it nol the part of wisdom to lay the axe at the root? Siavery ta nothing but a portion of the bitter fruits borne in profusión by the tree of repugnant labor. An attempt has never, till recently, been made to render labor attraciive. War. though a horrible employment, into whieh most men dread to enter, has been inade attractive by r.i ui'.o aaJ banners, competitive, rival and unned exertious, the social intercouríc and enthusiasm of masses, and the promotions and hmiors for which so many strive. Tiie nrduous and dangerous labors of a lire company are attractive, becausethere is rousexl the emulative spirit and the love of noble and charitable deeds. One company vies with another. often at nreat expor.se of money, in beautifying the engines with which Ihey work. Thus c;in labor, without profit. and even dangerous, destruetive and expensive. be made auractive, and participated wiih enlhusins;n. - The common pursuits of indus'.ry czn be made do lessattractivj. That they can be, ia not a mere tíiepreiica] proposition, Lut a dcmonsirated fact, a fact domonstraied by assoeiations now in operalion. Lnbor has been made repulsivo by the circumstances by which it ha3 been environed. BeiL repulsivc, three quarters of the world have deserted it. War. eensnest, and the power of wealth have made the lew. miers ofthemany: while a 9mall porïion oftlie raany, bv their unrenutted foü, mftifttain 'the whole. - Labor being thus deserted.' the victima of war and treachery wcro lorced to it by the smart ot' the merciless drivers Insh. The ioisy pyrainid j and the noble temple of antiqui'.y. whose gigantic ruins give enchnntme-nt to the mcniory of the pnsr, were cemented by the ininglei sweat and blood of multitudes enshved: And tliose moa ! umentsof a nation's power ond grandeur have mouldered riou-n.because the iinplemcnts of industry. the so!e support of nations, werc thrust int;i the hands of unwilling slaves. Thus. ye raan■■ stealers. has it ever been. and thus must it ever be, whero the slave is breed, by the iniliction of siripes. to Eiificr under the wholë burden, ti.at might, if all s'istained a pari. le borne with profii, e.ise nn;l picasure. And how mueh bstler can bc the late of that people, the mus9 of whüse laboréis are impclled, by tae scorpion whip of want, to labor? thcy despjsei Miilions ol' men. women and cluldren despise indastry and have a reugnance to i:s purstii-s. bccause so inuch of the av:i!o oí labor ore grasped i.y thé rich to uniniain riotous nul luxuiious lh a cost that leaves the la!orer no eessation froin weary toil, and no suUsistence adequate to tho wants of a happy temporal exislence. and the wnn!s of au immortal núnd. Most of tho circum' alancea under which the laboror is placed are of a most unpleasant character- such as p :;r pay; poor accommodaiions: coafse, ignorant or viciousassociates; too many hours of wil and monotonous occupatioas. withput associative nvalry, „citcmeot or en.h.si.ism. Such circumstances have fiïled the votld with drones and bchcmers

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News