overthrow it. It is now for them to demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly carry an election. can also suppress a rebellion; that ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors of bullets; and that when ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets; that there can be no successful appeal, except to ballots themselves, at succeeding elections. Such will be a great lesson of peace; teaching men that what they cannot take by an election, neither can they take by a war; teaching all the folly of being the beginners of a war.

LABOR AND CAPITAL

From the Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861 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 somebody 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 thus

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 the 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 majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men with their families wives, sons, and daughters work for themselves, on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors

of capital on the one hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor with capital that is, they labor with their own hands, and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class.

Again, as has already been said, 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 a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy and progress and improvement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty, none less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost.

LETTER TO GENERAL G. B. McCLELLAN Executive Mansion, Washington. February 3, 1862 My dear Sir, You and I have distinct and different plans for a movement of the Army of the Potomac — yours to be down the Chesapeake, up the Rappahannock to Urbana and across land to the terminus of the railroad on the York River; mine to move directly to a point on the railroad southwest of Manassas.

If you will give me satisfactory answers to the following questions, I shall gladly yield my plan to yours. First. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of time and money than mine?

Second. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine?

Third. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan than mine?

Fourth. In fact, would it not be less valuable in this, that it would break no great line of the enemy's communications, while mine would?

Fifth. In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more difficult by your plan than mine?

Yours truly,

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

MESSAGE TO CONGRESS RECOMMENDING COMPENSATED EMANCIPATION

March 6, 1862

Notwithstanding Lincoln's personal opposition to slavery on moral grounds, he desired just protection for slaveholders. Hence, he always argued before the war that guaranties of the

Constitution regarding slavery should be respected, and slaves made free only by gradual processes. The Proclamation for Compensated Emancipation was not primarily such a gradual process, however, but a practical war measure intended to win the border States for the Union. It afforded them a chance to maintain their allegiance without losing the money they had invested in slaves.

The history of Lincoln's attitude toward slavery after he became President is best traced in his own letters and addresses. See in this volume, in addition to the present selection: Letter to Greeley, Aug. 22, 1862; Reply to a Committee, Sept. 13, 1862; Emancipation Proclamation, Jan. 1, 1863; Letter to Conkling, Aug. 26, 1863; Letter to Drake, Oct. 5, 1863; Letter to Hodges, Apr. 4, 1864; Letter to Mrs. Horace Mann, Apr. 5, 1864; Last Public Address, Apr. 11, 1865.

For a brief history of bills intended to secure compensated emancipation, see Macdonald: Documentary Source Book of American History, p. 449.

Fellow-citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:

I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as follows:

Resolved: That the United States ought to coöperate with any State which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be used by such State, in its discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences, public and private, produced by such change of system.

If the proposition contained in the resolution does not meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is an end; but if it does command such approval, I deem it of importance that the States and people immediately interested should be at once distinctly