On the 13th of June, General Wilson made a full and elaborate reply to Mr. Butler, and in defence of Mr. Sumner. This speech and his speeches on the bill to admit Kansas, his speech in defence of the acts of Col. Fremont, and against using the army to enforce the acts of the territorial legislature of Kansas, were largely circulated through the country.
On the adjournment of Congress, General Wilson entered into the Presidential campaign, and gave all his energies to secure the triumph of the Republican cause.
During the sessions of 1856-7-8 and 1858-9, General Wilson was in constant attendance upon Congress, and his duties, owing to the prolonged absence of his colleague, were very arduous and pressing. In those sessions he took his full share of labor in the committee rooms, on the floor of the Senate, and on matters of legislative action. He took part in the debates during these sessions, upon all questions of importance, and on most of the questions before the Senate, he delivered elaborate speeches. Those upon the affairs of Kansas exhibit an amount of information, concerning that territory, surpassed by no other member of either House of Congress, and his speeches on the Treasury Note bill, the expenses of the Government, the revenue collection appropriations, the tariff, the President's Message, and the Pacific Railroad, are remarkable for fullness and accuracy of facts, and clearness and force of statement. His speech in March, 1850, in reply to Mr. Hammond of South Carolina, is one of the most effective speeches ever delivered in Congress, in defence of free labor. It is full of facts and points of great power, and few speeches ever made in Congress have had a wider circulation, or received warmer approval, in the free States.
Mr. Hammond characterized the manual laborers as "slaves"—the "mud-sills" of society. This extract is quoted from General Wilson's reply:
"Mr. President, the senator from South Carolina tells us that 'all the powers of the world cannot abolish' 'the thing' he calls slavery. 'God only can do it when he repeals the fiat, "the poor ye have always with you;" for the man who lives by daily labor, and your whole class of hireling manual laborers and operatives, are essentially slaves! Our slaves are black; happy, content, unaspiring; yours are white, and they feel galled by their degradation. Our slaves do not vote; yours do vote, and, being the majority, they are the depositaries of all your political power; and if they knew the tremendous secret, that the ballot-box is stronger than an army with banners, and could combine, your society would be reconstructed, your government overthrown, and your property divided.'
"'The poor ye have always with you!' This fiat of Almighty God, which Christian men of all ages and lands have accepted as the imperative injunction of the common Father of all, to care for the children of misfortune and sorrow, the senator from South Carolina accepts as the foundation-stone, the eternal law, of slavery, which 'all the powers of earth cannot abolish.' These precious words of our Heavenly Father, 'the poor ye have always with you,' are perpetually sounding in the ears of mankind, ever reminding them of their dependence and their duties. These words appeal alike to the conscience and the heart of mankind. To men blessed in their basket and their store, they say 'property has its duties as well as its rights!' To men clothed with authority to shape the policy or to administer the laws of the State, they say, 'lighten by wise, humane, and equal laws, the burdens of the toiling and dependent children of men!' To men of every age and every clime they appeal, by the Divine promise that 'he that giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord!' Sir, I thank God that I live in a commonwealth which sees no warrant in these words of inspiration to oppress the sons and daughters of toil and poverty. Over the poor and lowly she casts the broad shield of equal, just, and humane legislation. The poorest man that treads her soil, no matter what blood may run in his veins, is protected in his rights and incited to labor by no other force than the assurance that the fruits of his toil belong to himself, to the wife of his bosom, and the children of his love.
"The senator from South Carolina exclaims, 'The man who lives by daily labor, your whole class of manual laborers, are essentially slaves'—'they feel galled by their degradation!' What a sentiment is this to hear uttered in the councils of this democratic Republic! The senator's political associates who listen to these words which brand hundreds of thousands of the men they represent in the free States, and hundreds of their neighbors and personal friends as 'slaves,' have found no words to repel or rebuke this language. This language of scorn and contempt is addressed to senators who were not nursed by a slave; whose lot it was to toil with their own hands—to eat bread earned, not by the sweat of another's brow, but by their own. Sir, I am the son of a 'hireling manual laborer' who, with the frosts of seventy winters on his brow, 'lives by daily labor.' I, too, have 'lived by daily labor.' I, too, have been a 'hireling manual laborer.' Poverty cast its dark and chilling shadow over the home of my childhood, and want was there sometimes—an unbidden guest. At the age of ten years—to aid him who gave me being, in keeping the gaunt spectre from the hearth of the mother who bore me—I left the home of my boyhood, and went to earn my bread by 'daily labor.' Many a weary mile have I travelled
"'To beg a brother of the earth'
To give me leave to toil.'
"Sir, I have toiled as a 'hireling manual laborer' in the field and in the workshop; and I tell the senator from South Carolina that I never 'felt galled by my degradation.' No, sir—never! Perhaps the senator who represents that 'other class which leads progress, civilization, and refinement,' will ascribe this to obtuseness of intellect and blunted sensibilities of the heart. Sir, I was conscious of my manhood; I was the peer of my employer; I knew that the laws and institutions of my native and adopted States threw over him and over me alike the panoply of equality; I knew, too, that the world was before me, that its wealth, its garnered treasures of knowledge, its honors, the coveted prizes of life, were within the grasp of a brave heart and a tireless hand, and I accepted the responsibilities of my position all unconscious that I was a 'slave.' I have employed others, hundreds of 'hireling manual laborers.' Some of them then possessed, and now possess, more property than I ever owned; some of them were better educated than myself—yes, sir, better educated, and better read, too, than some senators on this floor; and many of them, in moral excellence and purity of character, I could not but feel, were my superiors. I have occupied, Mr. President, for more than thirty years, the relation of employer and employed; and while I never felt 'galled by my degradation' in the one case, in the other I was never conscious that my 'hireling laborers' were my inferiors. That man is a 'snob' who boasts of being a 'hireling laborer,' or who is ashamed of being a 'hireling laborer;' that man is a 'snob' who feels any inferiority to any man because he is a 'hireling laborer,' or who assumes any superiority over others because he is an employer. Honest labor is honorable; and the man who is ashamed that he is or was a 'hireling laborer' has not manhood enough to 'feel galled by his degradation.'