[103] numbers of workmen are employed, and get small enough wages for good work, has, as the representative of all the corporations, addressed the laboring men of Lowell in these words:notice.
Whoever, employed by this corporation, votes the Ben Butler ten-hour ticket on Monday next, will be discharged.
They do me honor overmuch in calling the ticket my ticket. If they had left that out I should have doubted my right to address this meeting of working-men upon this subject; but thus being called upon to do it, I am here to serve you and to save you from bondage.
You have shown yourselves to be the party of law and order, seeking to do everything according to the law and not otherwise, and now you are told that if you exercise your rights as free men in the manner your Constitution points out, you are not only not to be permitted to enjoy any of the divine blessings which the reverend clergyman has invoked upon your heads, but you are not even to be permitted to suffer in freedom and peace the primeval curse of the Almighty,--“ By the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread.” You gave up God's blessings long ago when you were obliged to work for these tyrants, but you could not see your children starve, and therefore you submitted to the punishment of His curse and asked by the sweat of your face to eat your bread. Now even this is to be taken from you unless you vote as your masters permit you to do, and thereby become their slaves. This is an unlawful threat to use unlawful force upon you, for it takes away your right to govern yourselves according to your consciences. You have only complied with the law; they have resorted to force. They avow an intention to oppress you; you have only shown an intention to assert your rights in a lawful manner.
Up to this time I had spoken in an almost conversational tone, because a whisper would have been heard in that great assembly, so silent it was. I went on:--
“I know the power of these corporations. I know many of the men who have been in charge. They have made a mistake in the appeal to force. When that weapon is tried, they are weak and you are strong. They have their mills and machinery, their bricks and their mortar, and that is the extent of their power.”
