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The Chairman stated that it would not be in order for the gentleman to address the House while there was no question pending.

[Cries of "Suspend the rules; hear him."]

Mr. Tallmadge rose and inquired if his colleague could not proceed by general consent? The Chairman replied in the affirmative.

No objection was made, and Mr. Greeley proceeded. The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Hudson] simply misunderstood one thing. He states me to have urged the considerations which he urged to me. He urged these considerations-and I think forcibly. I say now, as I did the other day on the floor of this House, I approve of the appropriation for the books, provided they are honestly disposed of according to the intent of the appropriation.

Mr. Edwards. Why, then, did you make the denial in the Tribune and say that you voted against it?

Mr. Greeley. I did vote against it. I did not vote for it, because I did not choose to have some sort of gentlemen on this floor hawk at me. The gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Hudson] submitted considerations to me, of which I admitted the force. I admit them now; I admit that the House was justifiable in voting for this appropriation, for the reasons ably stated by the Chairman of the Committee of ways and means; and I think I was justifiable, as this Hall will show, in not voting for it. In no particular was there collision between what I said on this floor, the editorial, and what I said in conversation. The conversation to which the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Darling] refers is doubtless the same of which the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Hudson] has spoken.

40

APPENDIX B.

MR. GREELEY ON THE PLATFORM.

I. HUMANITY.

The volume-Hints Towards Reforms-from which several extracts in this work have been made concludes with the subjoined essay on "Humanity."

The watchword of the Nineteenth Century is Brotherhood. Rapid and wonderful as is the progress of Physical Science valuable to Man as are the Steamboat, the Ra lroad, the Magnetic Telegraph-mighty as are the results attained, mightier the hopes excited and justified, by the march of discovery and invention - the great discovery being made, and to be made by the children of men, is that of their community of origin, of interests, of aspirations. "God hath made of one blood all people," is its essence, proclaimed many years ago; the new truth is but the old realized and made practical. Humanity refuses longer to be separated and arrayed against itself. Whoever oppresses or injures any human being, however abject or culpable, wrongs and tramples all men, himself included.

A grave, momentous truth-let it be heard and heeded. Hear it, grim and ruthless warrior! eager to rush over myriads of gashed and writhing bodies to coveted fame and power! These thou wouldst so readily trample into the earth are not really enemies, not merely victims-not something which may be separated from thee and thine: they are thy fellows, kinsmen, brethren-with thee, "members of one another," and of Humanity. The sword which hews them down, maims thee; the hoof that tramples them, wounds thee. No armour ever devised by cunning or selfishness can prevent this; no walls of stone or living men can ward off the blow. As surely as the verdant tree must mark its shadow in the sunshine- -as surely as the stone projected upward will not rest in mid-air, but descend- -so surely falls the evil on him by whom evil is done or

meditated.

Miser! heaping up fresh hoards of yellow dross! thou art starving, not others only, but thyself! Bread may fill thy garners, and thy vaults be stored with ruddy wines; but Plenty cannot come where dwells the insatiable thirst for more; and baleful are the possessions which contract the brow and harden the heart; speedy and sure is the judgment which avenges the woes of thy pale, hollow-cheeked victims!

Libertine believe not that the anguish thou so recklessly invokest on others shall leave thee unscathed! The contrary is written in the law whose date is Eternity, whose sphere the Universe. Fleeting and hollow are the guilty joys thou seekest, while the crimes by which they are compassed shall darken thy soul and embitter thy thoughts forever!

And thou, humble self-denying votary of the highest good-the good of thy brethren, thy fellow beings-vainly shalt thou strive to sacrifice thy own happiness to brighten the dark pathway of the needy, the wretched; the kindly fates will not permit it; Heaven will persist in promptly repaying thee more and better than thou hast given. Give all thou hast to lighten the burdens of others to-day, and the bounteous reward will not wait for to-morrow's sun. It will insist on making thee richer, in thy hunger and nakedness, than the king amid his pomp, the banker amid his treasures. Thy riches are safe from every device of villainy, from every access of calamity; they cannot be separated from

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nor made unavailable to thee. While thou art, they shall be to thee a chastened gladness, a tranquil rapture for ever!

And thou, saintly devotee, and shrine of all virtues! look not down in loathing, but in pity, on the ruined votary of vice and crime. He is here to teach thee not pride, but humility. The corrupt, revolting thing he is, tells thee what thou mightest easily have been, had not Divine Goodness, for its own high ends, not thine, willed otherwise. The drunkard's maudlin leer- the lecher's marred and hideous visage—the thief's cat-like tread and greedy eyes-even the murderer's strong heart and reeking hand - all these, rightly viewed, are but indications of the possibilities of thy own nature, commanding gratitude to God, and compassion for all human errors.

Ay, "we are members together of one body" of Humanity, whether blackened by the fervid sun of tropical deserts, or bleached by the fogs of a colder clime-whether worshiping God or the Grand Lama, erecting Christian altars in the savage wilderness or falling in frenzy beneath the wheels of Juggernaut - whether acting the part of a Washington or a Nicholas, a Howard or a Thug - the same red current courses through all our veins the same essential nature reveals itself through all. The slave in his coffle, the overseer brandishing his whip, the abolitionist denouncing oppression - who shall say that any one of these might not have been trained to do the deeds and think the thoughts of any other? who shall say that the red-handed savage of the wilds might not have been the meek, benign village pastor, blessing and blest by all around him, if his lot had been cast in Vermont instead of Oregon? who shall say how far his crimes are treasured up against him in the account, and how far they are charged to the perverting, darkening force of Christian rapacity and fraud, or esteemed the result of a Christian indifference and lethargy only less culpable?

Away then from human sight with the hideous implements of human butchery and destruction! Break the sword in its scabbard, bury the cannon in the earth, sink the boombs in the ocean! What business have these to disturb by their hateful presence the visible harmony of God's universe? How dare men go out into the balmy air and bright sunshine, and there, in the full view of Heaven, essay to maim and massacre each other? How would their wretched babblement of National interests or Nationai honour sound, if addressed directly to the All-Ruling, as an apology for wholesale slaughter? Who would dare be their mouthpiece in proffering an excuse so pitiful? And do not the abettors of war realize that their vile appeals to the baser passions of our nature resound in the ears of the Recording Angel?

But not war alone, the grossest form of human antagonism, but every form, is destined to a speedy extinction. The celestial voice that asked of old the terrific question, "where is thy brother Abel?" shall yet be heard and responded to by every one who would win profit or enjoyment from that which oppresses or degrades a single human being. The oppressor, the dram-seller, the gamester, are already beginning to listen, perforce, to its searching appeal-listen, at first, perhaps, with frowns, and sneers, and curses; but even these are symptoms of the inward convulsion-first mutterings of the mighty earthquake at hand.

In the day of light now dawning, no relation so palpably vicious as theirs can possibly abide. But theirs are the rude, salient out-works, which cover, while they withstand, the smoother, ampler, sturdier citadel of error. That all-pervading selfishness, which forgets or disregards the general well-being, is yet to be tracked to its most secret recesses, and extirpated.

The vocations of Life, the usages and structure of Society, the relations of power to Humility, of Wealth to Poverty, of served and Servant, must all be fused in the crucible of Human Brotherhood, and whatever abides not the test, rejected. Vainly will any seek to avert or escape the ordeal -idly will any hope to preserve from it some darling lust or pampered luxury or vanity. Onward, upward, irresistibly, shall move the Spirit of Reform, abasing the proud, exalting the lowly, until Sloth and Selfishness, Tyranny and Slavery, Waste and Want, Ignorance and Corruption, shall be swept from the face of the earth, and a golden age of Knowledge, of Virtue, of Plenty, and Happiness, shall dawn upon our sinning and suffering Race. Heaven speed its glorious coming and prepare us to welcome and enjoy it!

II. THE UNION OF WORKERS.

An Address to the Printers of New-York, delivered before the New-York Typographical Society, at their Celebration of Franklin's Birthday, January 17th, 1850.

The ancient Egyptians had a custom of seating at their feasts the robed skeleton of some departed friend, whose stern silence contrasted strikingly with the mirth and hilarity of his living companions. I believe scholars are not agreed as to the purpose and meaning of this strange custom-whether the rigid, silent guest were intended to say to the festal throng-- "Enjoy and revel while you may, for Time flies, Man perishes; in a few years all is dust, is nothing-therefore, make haste to quaff the wine while it sparkles, to seize pleasure while the capacity of enjoyment remains to you"—or rather to impress the opposite sentiment-"Life is short; Life is earnest; stupendous consequences hang suspended on your use or abuse of the speck of time allotted you; therefore, be temperate in your indulgence, moderate in your festive mirth, and, seeing in what I am what you soon must be, consider and beware!" I shall not of course pretend to decide this grave question, though I shall assume for the occasion that the latter is the true rendering; and, in acccordance with the elemental idea, I venture to assume among you to-night the functions of the Egyptian's silent monitor, and while others stir you with lofty eloquence or charm you with dulcet flatteries-with pictures of the grand achievements of our Art in the past and its brilliant prospects for the future, I shall speak to you frankly of our deficiencies, our failings, and the urgent demands upon us for new and more arduous exertions in yet unrecognized fields of duty.

It is now some four centuries since the discovery or invention of our Art, fully three since our continent began to be the home of civilized men, and more than two since the Pilgrim fugitives first landed on Plymouth Rock. Since that landing, and even within the last century, what amazing strides have been made in the diffusion of knowledge and the perfection of the implements and processes of Industry-in the efficiency of Human Labour and the facilitation of intercourse between country and country, clime and clime! The steam-engine, the spinning-jenny, the power-loom; the canal, the steam-ship, power-press, railroad and lightning telegraph—these, in their present perfection and efficiency, are a few of the trophies of human genius and labour within even the last century.

But while Labour has thus doubled and quadrupled its own efficacy in the production of whatever is needful to the physical sustenance, intellectual improvement, and social enjoyment of Men, I do not find that there has been a corresponding melioration in the condition of the Labourer. That there has been some improvement I do not deny; but has it been at all commensurate with the general progress of our race in whatever pertains to physical convenience or comfort? I think not; and I could not help pondering this matter even while our orator's silvery tones were delighting our ears with poetical descriptions of the wonders which Science and Invention have achieved and are achieving. I could not help consider-that, while Labour builds far more sumptuous mansions in our day than of old, furnishing them far more gorgeously and luxuriously, the labourer who builds those mansions lives oftenest in a squalid lodging, than which the builders of palaces in the fifteenth century can hardly have dwelt in more wretched; and that while the demands for labour, the uses of labour, the efficiency of labour, are multiplied and extended on every side by the rush of invention and the growth of luxury around us, yet in this middle of the Nineteenth Century (call it the last year of the first half or the first year of the last half as you please) Labour is a drug in the market-that the temperate, efficient, upright worker often finds the comfortable maintenance and proper education of his children beyond his ability-and that in this thriving Commercial Emporium of the New World, this trophy and pride of Christian Civilization-there are at this day not less than Forty Thousand human beings anxious to earn the bread of honest industry but vainly seeking, and painfully, despairingly awaiting opportunity for so doing. This last is the feature of our condition which seems to me most important

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629 and commanding, and it is to this, on occasions like the present, and in listening to such orations as that which has just delighted us, that my thoughts are irresistibly turned. What can be the reason of this? Why is it that these Forty Thousand strong-minded, willing workers stand here thus fixed, enchained, in loathed, despairing idleness? Why are they compelled to wear out our pavements in hurrying hither and thither in anxious, heart-sick quest of something to do?— with downcast looks and trembling voice beseeching some fellow-man to give them leave to labour for their bread? I trust no one here gives any heed to the mumbling of self-styled Political Economists about "Over Production" and the kindred phrases with which counsel is darkened. "Over Production" of what? Where? Can there be over-production of Food, when so many, even in our midst, are suffering the pangs of famine? "Over-Production" of Clothing and Fabrics, while our streets swarm with men, women and children who are not half-clad and who shiver through the night beneath the clothing they have worn by day? "Over Production" of Dwellings, when not half the families of our city have adequate and comfortable habitations, not to speak of that large class whose lodgings are utterly incompatible with decency and morality? No, friends! there is no "Over Production," save of articles pernicious aud poisonous, like Alcoholic Liquors, Lewd Books, implements of Gaming, &c. Of whatever conduces to human sustenance, comfort, or true education, there is not and never has been too much produced, although, owing to imperfect and vicious arrangements for Distribution, there may often be a glut in the warehouses of Trade, while thousands greatly need and would gladly purchase if they could. What the world eminently requires is some wise adjustment, some remodeling of the Social machinery, diminishing its friction whereby every person willing to work shall assuredly have work to do, and the just reward of that work in the articles most essential to his sustenance and comfort. It may be that there is indeed a surplus of that particular product which some man's labour could most skilfully or rapidly produce - Pianos, Watches, or Gauges for example - and therefore it may be advisable to intermit for a season the production of these yet the skill, the faculty, the muscular energy not required in that particular department of production might nevertheless be made available, even though in a subordinate degree, in the fabrication of some kindred product for which there is a demand among the general mass of consumers. I maintain, then, that in our day no man should be compelled to stand idle or wander vainly in search of employment, even though that particular calling for which he is best fitted has now no place for him, but that the palpable self interest of the community should prescribe the creation of some Social Providence expressly to take care that no man, woman, or child shall ever stand uselessly idle when willing and anxious to work. Even the most injudicious application of the labour now wasted through lack of opportunity could not fail to increase the National Wealth to the extent of millions on millions per annum while its effect on the condition of the Labouring Class, in preserving them from temptation, dissipation, and crime, would be incalculably beneficent.

Now what I stand here to complain of is the indifference and inattention of the Labouring mass, and especially of those entitled to a leading positon in it, like the Printers, to the discussion of a truth so grand and so fruitful as the Right to Labour. It is more discussed, more pondered, to-day, by Merchants, Capitalists, Scholars, and men who are called Aristocrats, than by the mass of those who earn their living by the sweat of the face. It is now eighteen years since I came to this city a journeyman printer, during which years I have been intimately connected with our craft in one capacity or another, and yet I have never heard of a meeting of Printers to consider and discuss the Rights generally of Labour, the causes of its depression, the means of its advancement. During these eighteen years there have been hard times and good times, so called; seasons of activity and seasons of depression-in the course of which the country has been "saved," I forget how often-our city has doubled in population and more than doubled in wealth-and yet the Labouring Class as a Class is just where it was when I came here, or if anything, in a worse condition, as the increased valuation of Property has caused advance in Rents and in some other necessaries of life. Individuals have risen out of the Labouring Class, becoming buyers of Labour and sellers of its Products, and grown rich thereby; but the condition of the Labouring Class, as such, has not improved, and I think is less favourable than it was twenty years ago. Why should it not investi