And now it is proposed not only to diminish that breathing-place, but to disturb it by the smoke of steam-engines, and to confuse it by the perpetual din of locomotives. I hope no such thing will be done. There is a place for all things; and this I know, the place for a railway-station is not a public park.
LETTER TO THE CONVENTION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS LABOR UNION IN BOSTON, MAY 25, 1872.
GENTLEMEN,--I cannot take part in your public meeting, but I declare my sympathy with the working-men in their aspirations for greater equality of condition and increased opportunities. I therefore insist that the experiment of an eight-hour law in the national workshops shall be fairly tried, so that, if successful, it may be extended.
Here let me confess that I find this law especially valuable, because it promises more time for education and general improvement. If the experiment is successful in this respect, I shall be less curious on the question of pecuniary profit and loss; for to my mind the education of the human family is above dollars and dividends.
Meanwhile accept my best wishes, and believe me
RESOLUTIONS IN THE SENATE, MAY 31, 1872, CONCERNING ARBITRATION AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR WAR IN DETERMINING DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NATIONS.
Whereas by International Law and existing custom War is recognized as a form of Trial for the determination of differences between nations; and
Whereas for generations good men have protested against the irrational character of this arbitrament, where force instead of justice prevails, and have anxiously sought for a substitute in the nature of a judicial tribunal, all of which was expressed by Franklin in his exclamation, “When will mankind be convinced that all wars are follies, very expensive and very mischievous, and agree to settle their differences by Arbitration?”[44] and
Whereas war once prevailed in the determination of differences between individuals, between cities, between counties, and between provinces, being recognized in all these cases as the arbiter of justice, but at last yielded to a judicial tribunal, and now, in the progress of civilization, the time has come for the extension of this humane principle to nations, so that their differences may be taken from the arbitrament of war, and, in conformity with these examples, submitted to a judicial tribunal; and