Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 9.djvu/292

268 I say that is best for the country which gives to labor its greatest reward, whether it be mining, farming, or any other business. Labor ought to be free so that it can go into that pursuit which pays the best, or produce that for which there is the greatest demand, and thus enrich and improve the country. Scarce as labor has been, and loud as are the complaints about the state of things here, nowhere is the diligent farmer more prosperous than in this much-abused Territory of Oregon. California has mines, and her farmers obtain help, and so it will be here if the laws of free labor and free trade are left to work out their natural results. I am opposed to slavery in Oregon because it will degrade labor. Cavilled with as this objection may be, it is vain to deny it. Suppose A and B have adjoining farms. A is rich and can buy slaves to do his work. B is less wealthy and must hire white men. Now does not the hired white men of B seem to take the same position with the negro slaves of A's? Does not this system inevitably beget a sentiment that the man or woman who hires out to do farm or house work is put upon a level with negroes?

Society if true to itself will seek to elevate and not to degrade labor. Labor changes waste places and the wilderness into the fruitful field and the beautiful city. Laboring men deserve to be the honorable of earth. They make the country and fight the battles for its defense. They fill up with vigor of mind and body where riches and luxury produce decay. They give to humanity and fame the Franklins, the Fultons and the Websters of history. Every community ought to have a system of free or slave labor. To mix them aggravates the evils of both, and subtract from the benefits of each. Negro slaves it must be admitted, are an ignorant and degraded class of beings, and therefore they will vitiate to some extent those white men who are compelled to work or associate with them. Moral differences when they meet, like water, seek a common level, and therefore if white men and negroes are brought in contact without that perfect subjection and rigid discipline which prevail among the slaves of the South, the