I am glad to know that there is a system of labor where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would to God that such a system prevailed all over the world.

The remark, as commonly circulated, expresses approval of “free labor” arrangements in which workers are not bound to an employer and may withhold their labor—i.e., strike—if terms are unacceptable. Read in that light, it aligns with Lincoln’s broader antebellum free-labor ideology: opposition to coerced labor systems and the belief that wage labor, when genuinely voluntary, can be a stage toward independence. The second sentence (“I would to God…”) intensifies the moral claim, suggesting that the ability to refuse work is a hallmark of human freedom. However, because the precise provenance of this wording is uncertain, any interpretation should be treated as thematic rather than tied to a specific documented occasion.