Mr. Speaker. I am deeply in sympathy with the objects of this bill. I would by every constitutional means protect American free labor from competition with foreign pauper and domestic convict labor. But my convictions are so clear that this bill contravenes the provisions of the Constitution of the United States and exceeds the limits of our legislative powers that. as much as I deprecate the continuous competition of convict labor. I can not vote for a bill which I believe to be void. Prisons for the confinement of criminals are a necessity. The State which properly punishes its criminals can properly employ them at labor. and the product of that labor is property of equal dignity and consideration under the Constitution with any other product of mans labor.
Keywords matched
foreign pauper