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 poverty; none 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 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 250,000,000. 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. SPECIAL MESSAGES. WASHINGTON, _December 4, 1861_. _To the House of Representatives_: I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, in reply to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 31st July last, upon the subject of increasing and extending trade and commerce of the United States with foreign countries. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, _December 4, 1861_. _To the House of Representatives_: I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, in reply to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 13th July last, in relation to the correspondence between this Government and foreign nations respecting the rights of blockade, privateering, and the recognition of the so-called Confederate States. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. WASHINGTON, _December 5, 1861_. _To the Senate of the United States_: I transmit to the Senate, for its consideration with a view to ratification, a treaty between the United States of America and His Majesty the King of Hanover, concerning the abolition of the Stade or Brunshausen dues, signed at Berlin on the 6th November, 1861.