is there any such thing as a free man being fixed for life in the
condition of a hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all
inferences from them are groundless.

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit
of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not 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 that 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