Every new mine, furnace, and
factory is an extension of the productive capacity of the State
more real and valuable than added territory.
Shall the prejudices and paralysis of slavery continue to hang
upon the skirts of progress? How long will those who rejoice that
slavery no longer exists cherish or tolerate the incapacities it
put upon their communities? I look hopefully to the continuance of
our protective system and to the consequent development of
manufacturing and mining enterprises in the States hitherto wholly
given to agriculture as a potent influence in the perfect
unification of our people. The men who have invested their capital
in these enterprises, the farmers who have felt the benefit of
their neighborhood, and the men who work in shop or field will not
fail to find and to defend a community of interest.
Is it not quite possible that the farmers and the promoters of the
great mining and manufacturing enterprises which have recently
been established in the South may yet find that the free ballot of
the workingman, without distinction of race, is needed for their
defense as well as for his own? I do not doubt that if those men
in the South who now accept the tariff views of Clay and the
constitutional expositions of Webster would courageously avow and
defend their real convictions they would not find it difficult, by
friendly instruction and cooperation, to make the black man their
efficient and safe ally, not only in establishing correct
principles in our national administration, but in preserving for
their local communities the benefits of social order and
economical and honest government.
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