first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital, producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation. A few men own capital, and those few avoid labor themselves, and, with their capital, hire or buy another few to labor for them. A large majority belong to neither class -neither work for others, nor have others working for them. In most of the Southern States, a majority of the whole people of all colors are neither slaves nor masters; while in the Northern, a large majority are neither hirers nor hired. Men, with their families-wives, sons, and daughters-work for themselves,on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, taking the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of hired laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor with capital—that is, they labor with their own hands, and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but this is only a mixed, and not a distinct class. No principle stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed class.

Again: as has already been said, there is not of necessity any such thing as the free hired laborer being fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men everywhere in these States, a few years back in their lives, were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy, and progress, and improvement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from povertynone less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against

- such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost.

From the first taking of our national census to the last are seventy years; and we find our population, at the end of the period, eight times as great as it was at the beginning. The increase of those other things which men deem desirable has been even greater. We thus have, at one view, what the popular principle applied to the Government through the machinery of the States and the Union, has produced in a given time; and also what, if firmly maintained, it promises for the future. There are already among us those who, if the Union be preserved, will live to see it contain two hundred and fifty millions. The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day; it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence, all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

GENERAL M'CLELLAN.

The appointment of General McClellan to the command of the Army of the Potomac after the battle of Bull Run, was received with satisfaction in military circles, and by the public generally. We all remember the hearty confidence which all loyal people gave him, and the high hopes we all based upon the general estimate of his abilities. We all remember, too, how, accomplished military man and capable organizer as he was, he yet tried the nation's soul by his delay and his hesitating strategy. Of our impatience the following Orders were the first public official expression:

ARMY ORDER.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 27, 1862. Ordered, That the twenty-second day of February, 1862, be the day for a general movement of the land and naval forces of the United States against the insurgent forces. That especially the army at and about Fortress Monroe, the army of the Poto

rdens upon

the last are end of the ning. The

sirable bas

the popu machinery given time: the future

on be pre ty millions

it is for

the more ich events! INCOLN

he com

battle of tary cir

mber the

him, and estimate

accom

mac, the army of Western Virginia, the army near Munfords: ville, Kentucky, the army and flotilla at Cairo, and a naval force in the Gulf of Mexico, be ready to move on that day.

That all other forces, both land and naval, with their respective commanders, obey existing orders for the time, and be ready to obey additional orders when duly given.

That the heads of departments, and especially the Secretaries of War and of the Navy, with all their subordinates, and the General-in-Chief, with all other commanders and subordinates of land and naval forces, will severally be held to their strict and full responsibilities for prompt execution of this order. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

ARMY ORDER.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 81, 1862. Ordered, That all the disposable force of the Army of the Potomac, after providing safely for the defence of Washington, be formed into an expedition for the immediate object of seizing and occupying a point upon the railroad southwest of what is known as Manassas Junction, all details to be in the discretion of the Commander-in-Chief, and the expedition to move before or on the twenty-second day of February next.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

The following letter from Mr. Lincoln to General McClellan is one of the earliest manifestations of a radical discrepancy of views between the General and the Administration, which became the source of great embarrasment, out of which the soldier did not extricate himself or his country by success, and in the course of which the civilian showed at least the ability always to touch with his pen the right point.

TO GENERAL M'CLELLAN ON THE PLAN OF THE CAM-
PAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, February 3, 1862. My Dear Sir-You and I have distinct and different plans for a movement of the Army of the Potomac; yours to be done by

the Chesapeake, up the Rappahannock to Urbana, and across land to the terminus of the railroad on the York River; mine to move directly to a point on the railroad southwest of Manassas.

If you will give satisfactory answers to the following questions, I shall gladly yield my plan to yours:

1st. Does not your plan involve a greatly larger expenditure of time and money than mine?

2d. Wherein is a victory more certain by your plan than mine? 8d. Wherein is a victory more valuable by your plan than mine? 4th. In fact, would it not be less valuable in this: that it would break no great line of the enemy's communication, while mine would?

5th. In case of disaster, would not a retreat be more difficult by your plan than mine ?

At the outbreak of the rebellion, emissaries of the rebels, and their active sympathizers, hardly less dangerous, were scattered over the country. Mr. Lincoln, following in this matter the example of Washington, ordered the summary arrest and imprisonment of some of these persons, and in this manner, without a doubt, neutralized many efforts that could have been met in no other way. Maryland was the scene of many of these arrests as to which Mr. Lincoln spoke frankly thus:

"The public safety renders it necessary that the grounds of these arrests should at present be withheld, but at the proper time they will be made public. Of one thing the people of Maryland may rest assured, that no arrest has been made, or will be made, not based on substantial and unmistakable complicity with those in armed rebellion against the Government of the United States. In no case has an arrest been made on mere suspicion, or through personal or partisan animosity, but in all cases the Government is in possession of tangible and un

mistakable evidence, which will, when made public, be satisfactory to every loyal citizen."

These arrests were made at first under the authority of the State Department, but on the 14th of February, 1862, this matter was transferred to the War Department, which transfer was made the occasion of the following State paper upon the subject, in which the reasons for these "arbitrary arrests" are fully set forth. After the appearance of this order there was little complaint heard upon this subject, except from those journals and individuals who were well known as sympathizers with the rebellion.

EXECUTIVE ORDERS IN RELATION TO STATE PRISONERS. WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 1862.

The breaking out of a formidable insurrection, based on a conflict of political ideas, being an event without precedent in the United States, was necessarily attended by great confusion and perplexity of the public mind. Disloyalty, before unsuspected, suddenly became bold, and treason astonished the world by bringing at once into the field military forces superior in numbers to the standing army of the United States.

Every department of the Government was paralyzed by treason. Defection appeared in the Senate, in the House of Representatives, in the Cabinet, in the Federal Courts; Minissters and Consuls returned from foreign countries to enter the insurrectionary councils, or land or naval forces; commanding and other officers of the army and in the navy betrayed the counsels or deserted their posts for commands in the insurgent forces. Treason was flagrant in the revenue and in the postoffice service, as well as in the territorial governments and in the Indian reserves.

Not only Governors, Judges, Legislators, and ministerial officers in the States, but even whole States, rushed, one after another, with apparent unanimity, into rebellion. The capital was besieged and its connection with all the States cut off.