But if there be a country which cannot stand any one of these tests,—­a country where knowledge cannot be diffused without perils of mob-law and statute-law,—­where speech is not free,—­where the post-office is violated, mail-bags opened, and letters tampered with,—­where public debts and private debts outside of the State are repudiated,—­where liberty is attacked in the primary institution of their social life,—­where the position of the white woman is injuriously affected by the outlawry of the black woman,—­where the arts, such as they have, are all imported, having no indigenous life,—­where the laborer is not secured in the earnings of his own hands,—­where suffrage is not free or equal,—­that country is, in all these respects, not civil, but barbarous, and no advantages of soil, climate, or coast can resist these suicidal mischiefs.

Morality is essential, and all the incidents of morality,—­as, justice to the subject, and personal liberty.  Montesquieu says,—­“Countries are well cultivated, not as they are fertile, but as they are free”; and the remark holds not less, but more, true of the culture of men than of the tillage of land.  And the highest proof of civility is, that the whole public action of the State is directed on securing the greatest good of the greatest number.

Our Southern States have introduced confusion into the moral sentiments of their people, by reversing this rule in theory and practice, and denying a man’s right to his labor.  The distinction and end of a soundly constituted man is his labor.  Use is inscribed on all his faculties.  Use is the end to which he exists.  As the tree exists for its fruit, so a man for his work.  A fruitless plant, an idle animal, is not found in the universe.  They are all toiling, however secretly or slowly, in the province assigned them, and to a use in the economy of the world,—­the higher and more complex organizations to higher and more catholic service; and man seems to play a certain part that tells on the general face of the planet,—­as if dressing the globe for happier races of his own kind, or, as we sometimes fancy, for beings of superior organization.

But thus use, labor of each for all, is the health and virtue of all beings.  ICH DIEN, I serve, is a truly royal motto.  And it is the mark of nobleness to volunteer the lowest service,—­the greatest spirit only attaining to humility.  Nay, God is God because he is the servant of all.  Well, now here comes this conspiracy of slavery,—­they call it an institution, I call it a destitution,—­this stealing of men and setting them to work,—­stealing their labor, and the thief sitting idle himself; and for two or three ages it has lasted, and has yielded a certain quantity of rice, cotton, and sugar.  And standing on this doleful experience, these people have endeavored to reverse the natural sentiments of mankind, and to pronounce labor disgraceful, and the well-being of a man to consist in eating the fruit