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<xml><p>NO TREASON: THE CONSTITUTION OF NO AUTHORITY</p>
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<p>By Lysander Spooner</p>
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<p>Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) was a Massachussetts lawyer noted for
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his vigorous and brilliant opposition to the encroachment of the
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State upon the liberty of the individual. His writings on the
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unconstitutionality of slavery influenced pre-Civil War thought. His
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challenge to the postal monopoly (he set up a thriving private post)
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resulted in an Act of Congress sharply reducing postage rates.
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Unfortunately, he was so successful that Congress finally outlawed
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his enterprise.</p>
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<p>The following is the first of a several-part posting of Spooner's
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work, "No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority," which
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_Playboy_ magazine said "may be the most subversive document ever
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penned in this nation." Due to the lack of italic characters in
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ASCII, italicized words are indicated by uppercase.</p>
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<div>-----</div>
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<p>NO TREASON: THE CONSTITUTION OF NO AUTHORITY</p>
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<p>By Lysander Spooner</p>
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<p>I.</p>
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<p>The Constitution has no inherent authority or obligation. It has no
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authority or obligation at all, unless as a contract between man and
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man. And it does not so much as even purport to be a contract
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between persons now existing. It purports, at most, to be only a
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contract between persons living eighty years ago. [This essay was
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written in 1869.] And it can be supposed to have been a contract
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then only between persons who had already come to years of
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discretion, so as to be competent to make reasonable and obligatory
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contracts. Furthermore, we know, historically, that only a small
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portion even of the people then existing were consulted on the
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subject, or asked, or permitted to express either their consent or
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dissent in any formal manner. Those persons, if any, who did give
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their consent formally, are all dead now. Most of them have been
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dead forty, fifty, sixty, or seventy years. AND THE CONSTITUTION,
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SO FAR AS IT WAS THEIR CONTRACT, DIED WITH THEM. They had no
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natural power or right to make it obligatory upon their children. It
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is not only plainly impossible, in the nature of things, that they
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COULD bind their posterity, but they did not even attempt to bind
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them. That is to say, the instrument does not purport to be an
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agreement between any body but "the people" THEN existing; nor does
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it, either expressly or impliedly, assert any right, power, or
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disposition, on their part, to bind anybody but themselves. Let us
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see. Its language is:</p>
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<p> We, the people of the United States (that is, the people
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THEN EXISTING in the United States), in order to form a
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more perfect union, insure domestic tranquility, provide
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for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and
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secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves AND OUR
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POSTERITY, do ordain and establish this Constitution for
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the United States of America.</p>
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<p>It is plain, in the first place, that this language, AS AN
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AGREEMENT, purports to be only what it at most really was, viz., a
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contract between the people then existing; and, of necessity,
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binding, as a contract, only upon those then existing. In the
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second place, the language neither expresses nor implies that they
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had any right or power, to bind their "posterity" to live under it.
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It does not say that their "posterity" will, shall, or must live
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under it. It only says, in effect, that their hopes and motives in
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adopting it were that it might prove useful to their posterity, as
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well as to themselves, by promoting their union, safety,
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tranquility, liberty, etc.</p>
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<p>Suppose an agreement were entered into, in this form:</p>
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<p> We, the people of Boston, agree to maintain a fort on
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Governor's Island, to protect ourselves and our
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posterity against invasion.</p>
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<p>This agreement, as an agreement, would clearly bind nobody but the
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people then existing. Secondly, it would assert no right, power, or
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disposition, on their part, to compel their "posterity" to maintain
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such a fort. It would only indicate that the supposed welfare of
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their posterity was one of the motives that induced the original
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parties to enter into the agreement.</p>
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<p>When a man says he is building a house for himself and his
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posterity, he does not mean to be understood as saying that he has
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any thought of binding them, nor is it to be inferred that he is so
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foolish as to imagine that he has any right or power to bind them,
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to live in it. So far as they are concerned, he only means to be
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understood as saying that his hopes and motives, in building it, are
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that they, or at least some of them, may find it for their happiness
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to live in it.</p>
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<p>So when a man says he is planting a tree for himself and his
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posterity, he does not mean to be understood as saying that he has
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any thought of compelling them, nor is it to be inferred that he is
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such a simpleton as to imagine that he has any right or power to
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compel them, to eat the fruit. So far as they are concerned, he only
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means to say that his hopes and motives, in planting the tree, are
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that its fruit may be agreeable to them.</p>
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<p>So it was with those who originally adopted the Constitution.
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Whatever may have been their personal intentions, the legal meaning
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of their language, so far as their "posterity" was concerned, simply
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was, that their hopes and motives, in entering into the agreement,
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were that it might prove useful and acceptable to their posterity;
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that it might promote their union, safety, tranquility, and welfare;
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and that it might tend "to secure to them the blessings of liberty."
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The language does not assert nor at all imply, any right, power, or
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disposition, on the part of the original parties to the agreement,
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to compel their "posterity" to live under it. If they had intended
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to bind their posterity to live under it, they should have said that
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their objective was, not "to secure to them the blessings of
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liberty," but to make slaves of them; for if their "posterity" are
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bound to live under it, they are nothing less than the slaves of
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their foolish, tyrannical, and dead grandfathers.</p>
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<p>It cannot be said that the Constitution formed "the people of the
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United States," for all time, into a corporation. It does not speak
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of "the people" as a corporation, but as individuals. A corporation
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does not describe itself as "we," nor as "people," nor as
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"ourselves." Nor does a corporation, in legal language, have any
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"posterity." It supposes itself to have, and speaks of itself as
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having, perpetual existence, as a single individuality.</p>
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<p>Moreover, no body of men, existing at any one time, have the power
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to create a perpetual corporation. A corporation can become
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practically perpetual only by the voluntary accession of new
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members, as the old ones die off. But for this voluntary accession
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of new members, the corporation necessarily dies with the death of
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those who originally composed it.</p>
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<p>Legally speaking, therefore, there is, in the Constitution, nothing
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that professes or attempts to bind the "posterity" of those who
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established it.</p>
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<p>If, then, those who established the Constitution, had no power to
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bind, and did not attempt to bind, their posterity, the question
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arises, whether their posterity have bound themselves. If they have
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done so, they can have done so in only one or both of these two
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ways, viz., by voting, and paying taxes.</p>
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<p>II.</p>
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<p>Let us consider these two matters, voting and tax paying,
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separately. And first of voting.</p>
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<p>All the voting that has ever taken place under the Constitution, has
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been of such a kind that it not only did not pledge the whole people
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to support the Constitution, but it did not even pledge any one of
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them to do so, as the following considerations show.</p>
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<p>1. In the very nature of things, the act of voting could bind nobody
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but the actual voters. But owing to the property qualifications
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required, it is probable that, during the first twenty or thirty
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years under the Constitution, not more than one-tenth, fifteenth, or
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perhaps twentieth of the whole population (black and white, men,
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women, and minors) were permitted to vote. Consequently, so far as
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voting was concerned, not more than one-tenth, fifteenth, or
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twentieth of those then existing, could have incurred any obligation
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to support the Constitution.</p>
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<p>At the present time [1869], it is probable that not more than
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one-sixth of the whole population are permitted to vote.
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Consequently, so far as voting is concerned, the other five-sixths
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can have given no pledge that they will support the Constitution.</p>
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<p>2. Of the one-sixth that are permitted to vote, probably not more
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than two-thirds (about one-ninth of the whole population) have
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usually voted. Many never vote at all. Many vote only once in two,
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three, five, or ten years, in periods of great excitement.</p>
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<p>No one, by voting, can be said to pledge himself for any longer
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period than that for which he votes. If, for example, I vote for an
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officer who is to hold his office for only a year, I cannot be said
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to have thereby pledged myself to support the government beyond that
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term. Therefore, on the ground of actual voting, it probably cannot
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be said that more than one-ninth or one-eighth, of the whole
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population are usually under any pledge to support the Constitution.
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[In recent years, since 1940, the number of voters in elections has
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usually fluctuated between one-third and two-fifths of the
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populace.]</p>
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<p>3. It cannot be said that, by voting, a man pledges himself to
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support the Constitution, unless the act of voting be a perfectly
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voluntary one on his part. Yet the act of voting cannot properly be
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called a voluntary one on the part of any very large number of those
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who do vote. It is rather a measure of necessity imposed upon them
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by others, than one of their own choice. On this point I repeat
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what was said in a former number, viz.:</p>
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<p> "In truth, in the case of individuals, their actual
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voting is not to be taken as proof of consent, EVEN FOR
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THE TIME BEING. On the contrary, it is to be considered
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that, without his consent having even been asked a man
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finds himself environed by a government that he cannot
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resist; a government that forces him to pay money,
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render service, and forego the exercise of many of his
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natural rights, under peril of weighty punishments. He
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sees, too, that other men practice this tyranny over him
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by the use of the ballot. He sees further, that, if he
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will but use the ballot himself, he has some chance of
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relieving himself from this tyranny of others, by
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subjecting them to his own. In short, he finds himself,
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without his consent, so situated that, if he use the
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ballot, he may become a master; if he does not use it,
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he must become a slave. And he has no other alternative
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than these two. In self-defence, he attempts the
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former. His case is analogous to that of a man who has
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been forced into battle, where he must either kill
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others, or be killed himself. Because, to save his own
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life in battle, a man takes the lives of his opponents,
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it is not to be inferred that the battle is one of his
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own choosing. Neither in contests with the ballot --
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which is a mere substitute for a bullet -- because, as
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his only chance of self-preservation, a man uses a
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ballot, is it to be inferred that the contest is one
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into which he voluntarily entered; that he voluntarily
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set up all his own natural rights, as a stake against
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those of others, to be lost or won by the mere power of
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numbers. On the contrary, it is to be considered that,
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in an exigency into which he had been forced by others,
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and in which no other means of self-defence offered, he,
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as a matter of necessity, used the only one that was
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left to him.</p>
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<p> "Doubtless the most miserable of men, under the most
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oppressive government in the world, if allowed the
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ballot, would use it, if they could see any chance of
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thereby meliorating their condition. But it would not,
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therefore, be a legitimate inference that the government
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itself, that crushes them, was one which they had
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voluntarily set up, or even consented to.</p>
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<p> "Therefore, a man's voting under the Constitution of the
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United States, is not to be taken as evidence that he
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ever freely assented to the Constitution, EVEN FOR THE
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TIME BEING. Consequently we have no proof that any very
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large portion, even of the actual voters of the United
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States, ever really and voluntarily consented to the
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Constitution, EVEN FOR THE TIME BEING. Nor can we ever
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have such proof, until every man is left perfectly free
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to consent, or not, without thereby subjecting himself
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or his property to be disturbed or injured by others."</p>
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<p>As we can have no legal knowledge as to who votes from choice, and
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who from the necessity thus forced upon him, we can have no legal
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knowledge, as to any particular individual, that he voted from
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choice; or, consequently, that by voting, he consented, or pledged
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himself, to support the government. Legally speaking, therefore, the
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act of voting utterly fails to pledge ANY ONE to support the
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government. It utterly fails to prove that the government rests
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upon the voluntary support of anybody. On general principles of law
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and reason, it cannot be said that the government has any voluntary
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supporters at all, until it can be distinctly shown who its
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voluntary supporters are.</p>
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<p>4. As taxation is made compulsory on all, whether they vote or not,
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a large proportion of those who vote, no doubt do so to prevent
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their own money being used against themselves; when, in fact, they
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would have gladly abstained from voting, if they could thereby have
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saved themselves from taxation alone, to say nothing of being saved
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from all the other usurpations and tyrannies of the government. To
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take a man's property without his consent, and then to infer his
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consent because he attempts, by voting, to prevent that property
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from being used to his injury, is a very insufficient proof of his
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consent to support the Constitution. It is, in fact, no proof at
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all. And as we can have no legal knowledge as to who the particular
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individuals are, if there are any, who are willing to be taxed for
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the sake of voting, we can have no legal knowledge that any
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particular individual consents to be taxed for the sake of voting;
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or, consequently, consents to support the Constitution.</p>
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<p>5. At nearly all elections, votes are given for various candidates
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for the same office. Those who vote for the unsuccessful candidates
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cannot properly be said to have voted to sustain the Constitution.
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They may, with more reason, be supposed to have voted, not to
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support the Constitution, but specially to prevent the tyranny which
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they anticipate the successful candidate intends to practice upon
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them under color of the Constitution; and therefore may reasonably
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be supposed to have voted against the Constitution itself. This
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supposition is the more reasonable, inasmuch as such voting is the
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only mode allowed to them of expressing their dissent to the
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Constitution.</p>
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<p>6. Many votes are usually given for candidates who have no prospect
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of success. Those who give such votes may reasonably be supposed to
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have voted as they did, with a special intention, not to support,
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but to obstruct the exection of, the Constitution; and, therefore,
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against the Constitution itself.</p>
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<p>7. As all the different votes are given secretly (by secret ballot),
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there is no legal means of knowing, from the votes themselves, who
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votes for, and who votes against, the Constitution. Therefore,
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voting affords no legal evidence that any particular individual
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supports the Constitution. And where there can be no legal evidence
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that any particular individual supports the Constitution, it cannot
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legally be said that anybody supports it. It is clearly impossible
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to have any legal proof of the intentions of largealar one of them.</p>
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<p>8. There being no legal proof of any man's intentions, in voting, we
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can only conjecture them. As a conjecture, it is probable, that a
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very large proportion of those who vote, do so on this principle,
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viz., that if, by voting, thest cases, wholly contingent upon the question whether, by means
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of the Constitution, they can make themselves masters, or are to be
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made slaves.</p>
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<p>Such contingent consent as that is, in law and reason, no consent at
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all.</p>
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<p>9. As everybody who supporMAKE HIMSELF PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTS OF HIS AGENTS, SO
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LONG AS THEY ACT WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE POWER HE DELEGATES TO
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THEM.</p>
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<p>10. As all voting is secret (by secret ballot), and as all secret
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governments are necessarily only secret bands of robbers, tyrants,
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and murderers, the general fact that our government is practically
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carried on by means of such voting, on murder, the rest of the people. The simple fact of the
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existence of such a vand does nothing towards proving that "the
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people of the United States," or any one of them, voluntarily
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supports the Constitution.</p>
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<p>For all the reasons that have now been given, voting furnishes no
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legal evidence as to who the particular individuals are (if there
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are any), who voluntarily support the Constitution. It therefore
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furnishes no legal evidence that anybody supports it voluntarily.</p>
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<p>So far, therefore, as voting is concerned, the Constitution, legally
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speaking, has no supporters at all.</p>
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<p>And, as a matter of fact, there is not the slightest probability
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that the Constitution has a single bona fide supporter in the
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country. That is to say, there is not the slightest probability
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that there is a single man in the country, who both understands what
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the Constitution really is, AND SINCERELY SUPPORTS IT FOR WHAT IT
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REALLY IS.</p>
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<p>The ostensible supporters of the Constitution, like the ostensible
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supporters of most other governments, are made up of three classes,
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viz.: 1. Knaves, a numerous and active class, who see in the
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governmey can use for their own
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aggrandizement or wealth. 2. Dupes -- a large class, no doubt --
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each of whom, because he is allowed one voice out of millions in
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deciding what he may do with his own person and his own property,
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and because he is permitted to have the same voice in robbing,
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enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in robbing,
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enslaving, and murdering himself, is stupid enough to imagine that
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he is a "free man," a "sovereign"; that this is "a free government";
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"a government of equal rights," "the best government on earth," [1]
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and such like abA class who have some appreciation of
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the evils of government, but either do not see how to get rid of
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them, or do not choose to so far sacrifice their private interests
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as to give themselves seriously and earnestly to the work of making
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a change.</p>
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<p>-----------
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|
[1] Suppose it be "the best government on earth," does that prove
|
||
|
its own goodness, or only the badness of all other
|
||
|
governments?</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>III.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The payment of taxes, being compulsory, of course furnishes no
|
||
|
evidence that any one voluntarily supports the Constitution.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>1. It is true that the THEORY of our Constitution is, that all taxes
|
||
|
are paid voluntarily; that our government is a mutual insurance
|
||
|
company, voluntarily entered into by the people with each other;
|
||
|
that that each man makes a free and purely voluntary contract with
|
||
|
all others who are parties to the Constitution, to pay so much money
|
||
|
for so much protection, the same as he does with any other insurance
|
||
|
company; and that he is just as free not to be protected, and not to
|
||
|
pay tax, as he is to pay a tax, and be protected.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>But this theory of our government is wholly different from the
|
||
|
practical fact. The fact is that the government, like a highwayman,
|
||
|
says to a man: "Your money, or your life." And many, if not most,
|
||
|
taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place,
|
||
|
spring upon him from the roadside, and, holding a pistol to his
|
||
|
head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the
|
||
|
less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and
|
||
|
shameful.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger,
|
||
|
and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any
|
||
|
rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your
|
||
|
own benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He
|
||
|
has not acquired impudence enough to profess to be merely a
|
||
|
"protector," and that he takes men's money against their will,
|
||
|
merely to enable him to "protect" those infatuated travellers, who
|
||
|
feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his
|
||
|
peculiar system of protection. He is too sensible a man to make
|
||
|
such professions as these. Furthermore, having taken your money, he
|
||
|
leaves you, as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following
|
||
|
you on the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful
|
||
|
"sovereign," on account of the "protection" he affords you. He does
|
||
|
not keep "protecting" you, by commanding you to bow down and serve
|
||
|
him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that; by
|
||
|
robbing you of more money as often as he finds it for his interest
|
||
|
or pleasure to do so; and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor, and
|
||
|
an enemy to your country, and shooting you down without mercy, if
|
||
|
you dispute his authority, or resist his demands. He is too much of
|
||
|
a gentleman to be guilty of such impostures, and insults, and
|
||
|
villanies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing
|
||
|
you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The proceedings of those robbers and murderers, who call themselves
|
||
|
"the government," are directly the opposite of these of the single
|
||
|
highwayman.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>In the first place, they do not, like him, make themselves
|
||
|
individually known; or, consequently, take upon themselves
|
||
|
personally the responsibility of their acts. On the contrary, they
|
||
|
secretly (by secret ballot) designate some one of their number to
|
||
|
commit the robbery in their behalf, while they keep themselves
|
||
|
practically concealed. They say to the person thus designated:</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Go to A_____ B_____, and say to him that "the government" has need
|
||
|
of money to meet the expenses of protecting him and his property.
|
||
|
If he presumes to say that he, are permitted to vote; and thus
|
||
|
to make themselves parts of, or (if they choose) opponents of, the
|
||
|
government, for the time being. But who of them do thus vote, and
|
||
|
especially how each one votes (whether so as to aid or oppose the
|
||
|
government), he does not know; the voting being all done secretly
|
||
|
(by secret ballot). Who, therefore, practically compose "the
|
||
|
government," for the time being, he has no means of knowing. Of
|
||
|
course he can make no contract with them, give them no consent, and
|
||
|
make them no pledge. Of necessity, therefore, his paying taxes to
|
||
|
them implies, on his part, no contract, consent, or pledge to
|
||
|
support them -- that is, to support "the government," or the
|
||
|
Constitution.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>3. Not knowing who the particular individuals are, who call
|
||
|
themselves "the government," the taxpayer does not know whom he pays
|
||
|
his taxes to. All he knows is that a man comes to him, representing
|
||
|
himself to be the agent of "the government" -- that is, the agent of
|
||
|
a secret band of robbers and murderers, who have taken to themselves
|
||
|
the title of "the government," and have determined to kill everybody
|
||
|
who refuses to give them whatever money they demand. To save his
|
||
|
life, he gives up his money to this agent. But as this agent does
|
||
|
not make his principals individually known to the taxpayer, the
|
||
|
latter, after he has given up his money, knows no more who are "the
|
||
|
government" -- that is, who were the robbers -- than he did before.
|
||
|
To say, therefore, that by giving up his money to their agent, he
|
||
|
entered into a voluntary contract with them, that he pledges himself
|
||
|
to obey them, to support them, and to give them whatever money they
|
||
|
should demand of him in the future, is simply ridiculous.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>4. All political power, so called, rests practically upon this
|
||
|
matter of money. Any number of scoundrels, having money enough to
|
||
|
start with, can establish themselves as a "government"; because,
|
||
|
with money, they can hire soldiers, and with soldiers extort more
|
||
|
money; and also compel general obedience to their will. It is with
|
||
|
government, as Caesar said it was in war, that money and soldiers
|
||
|
mutually supported each other; that with money he could hire
|
||
|
soldiers, and with soldiers extort money. So these villains, who
|
||
|
call themselves governments, well understand that their power rests
|
||
|
primarily upon money. With money they can hire soldiers, and with
|
||
|
soldiers extort money. And, when their authority is denied, the
|
||
|
first use they always make of money, is to hire soldiers to kill or
|
||
|
subdue all who refuse them more money.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>For this reason, whoever desires liberty, should understand these
|
||
|
vital facts, viz.: 1. That every man who puts money into the hands
|
||
|
of a "government" (so called), puts into its hands a sword which
|
||
|
will be used against him, to extort more money from him, and also to
|
||
|
keep him in subjection to its arbitrary will. 2. That those who
|
||
|
will take his money, without his consent, in the first place, will
|
||
|
use it for his further robbery and enslavement, if he presumes to
|
||
|
resist their demands in the future. 3. That it is a perfect
|
||
|
absurdity to suppose that any body of men would ever take a man's
|
||
|
money without his consent, for any such object as they profess to
|
||
|
take it for, viz., that of protecting him; for why should they wish
|
||
|
to protect him, if he does not wish them to do so? To suppose that
|
||
|
they would do so, is just as absurd as it would be to suppose that
|
||
|
they would take his moeny without his consent, for the purpose of
|
||
|
buying food or clothing for him, when he did not want it. 4. If a
|
||
|
man wants "protection," he is competent to make his own bargains for
|
||
|
it; and nobody has any occasion to rob him, in order to "protect"
|
||
|
him against his will. 5. That the only security men can have for
|
||
|
their political liberty, consists in their keeping their money in
|
||
|
their own pockets, until they have assurances, perfectly
|
||
|
satisfactory to themselves, that it will be used as they wish it to
|
||
|
be used, for their benefit, and not for their injury. 6. That no
|
||
|
government, so called, can reasonably be trusted for a moment, or
|
||
|
reasonably be supposed to have honest purposes in view, any longer
|
||
|
than it depends wholly upon voluntary support.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>These facts are all so vital and so self-evident, that it cannot
|
||
|
reasonably be supposed that any one will voluntarily pay money to a
|
||
|
"government," for the purpose of securing its protection, unless he
|
||
|
first make an explicit and purely voluntary contract with it for
|
||
|
that purpose.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>It is perfectly evident, therefore, that neither such voting, nor
|
||
|
such payment of taxes, as actually takes place, proves anybody's
|
||
|
consent, or obligation, to support the Constitution. Consequently
|
||
|
we have no evidence at all that the Constitution is binding upon
|
||
|
anybody, or that anybody is under any contract or obligation
|
||
|
whatever to support it. And nobody is under any obligation to
|
||
|
support it.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>IV.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>THE CONSTITUTION NOT ONLY BINDS NOBODY NOW, BUT IT NEVER DID BIND
|
||
|
ANYBODY. It never bound anybody, because it was never agreed to by
|
||
|
anybody in such a manner as to make it, on general principles of law
|
||
|
and reason, binding upon him.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>It is a general principle of law and reason, that a WRITTEN
|
||
|
instrument binds no one until he has signed it. This principle is
|
||
|
so inflexible a one, that even though a man is unable to write his
|
||
|
name, he must still "make his mark," before he is bound by a written
|
||
|
contract. This custom was established ages ago, when few men could
|
||
|
write their names; when a clerk -- that is, a man who could write --
|
||
|
was so rare and valuable a person, that even if he were guilty of
|
||
|
high crimes, he was entitled to pardon, on the ground that the
|
||
|
public could not afford to lose his services. Even at that time, a
|
||
|
written contract must be signed; and men who could not write, either
|
||
|
"made their mark," or signed their contracts by stamping their seals
|
||
|
upon wax affixed to the parchment on which their contracts were
|
||
|
written. Hence the custom of affixing seals, that has continued to
|
||
|
this time.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The laws holds, and reason declares, that if a written instrument is
|
||
|
not signed, the presumption must be that the party to be bound by
|
||
|
it, did not choose to sign it, or to bind himself by it. And law
|
||
|
and reason both give him until the last moment, in which to decide
|
||
|
whether he will sign it, or not. Neither law nor reason requires or
|
||
|
expects a man to agree to an instrument, UNTIL IT IS WRITTEN; for
|
||
|
until it is written, he cannot know its precise legal meaning. And
|
||
|
when it is written, and he has had the opportunity to satisfy
|
||
|
himself of its precise legal meaning, he is then expected to decide,
|
||
|
and not before, whether he will agree to it or not. And if he do
|
||
|
not THEN sign it, his reason is supposed to be, that he does not
|
||
|
choose to enter into such a contract. The fact that the instrument
|
||
|
was written for him to sign, or with the hope that he would sign it,
|
||
|
goes for nothing.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Where would be the end of fraud and litigation, if one party could
|
||
|
bring into court a written instrument, without any signature, and
|
||
|
claim to have it enforced, upon the ground that it was written for
|
||
|
another man to sign? that this other man had promised to sign it?
|
||
|
that he ought to have signed it? that he had had the opportunity to
|
||
|
sign it, if he would? but that he had refused or neglected to do so?
|
||
|
Yet that is the most that could ever be said of the Constitution.
|
||
|
[1] The very judges, who profess to derive all their authority from
|
||
|
the Constitution -- from an instrument that nobody ever signed --
|
||
|
would spurn any other instrument, not signed, that should be brought
|
||
|
before them for adjudication.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>-----------
|
||
|
[1] The very men who drafted it, never signed it in any way to
|
||
|
bind themselves by it, AS A CONTRACT. And not one of them
|
||
|
probably ever would have signed it in any way to bind himself
|
||
|
by it, AS A CONTRACT.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Moreover, a written instrument must, in law and reason, not only be
|
||
|
signed, but must also be delivered to the party (or to some one for
|
||
|
him), in whose favor it is made, before it can bind the party making
|
||
|
it. The signing is of no effect, unless the instrument be also
|
||
|
delivered. And a party is at perfect liberty to refuse to deliver a
|
||
|
written instrument, after he has signed it. The Constitution was
|
||
|
not only never signed by anybody, but it was never delivered by
|
||
|
anybody, or to anybody's agent or attorney. It can therefore be of
|
||
|
no more validity as a contract, then can any other instrument that
|
||
|
was never signed or delivered.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>V.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>As further evidence of the general sense of mankind, as to the
|
||
|
practical necessity there is that all men's IMPORTANT contracts,
|
||
|
especially those of a permanent nature, should be both written and
|
||
|
signed, the following facts are pertinent.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>For nearly two hundred years -- that is, since 1677 -- there has
|
||
|
been on the statute book of England, and the same, in substance, if
|
||
|
not precisely in letter, has been re-enacted, and is now in force,
|
||
|
in nearly or quite all the States of this Union, a statute, the
|
||
|
general object of which is to declare that no action shall be
|
||
|
brought to enforce contracts of the more important class, UNLESS
|
||
|
THEY ARE PUT IN WRITING, AND SIGNED BY THE PARTIES TO BE HELD
|
||
|
CHARGEABLE UPON THEM. [At this point there is a footnote listing 34
|
||
|
states whose statute books Spooner had examined, all of which had
|
||
|
variations of this English statute; the footnote also quotes part of
|
||
|
the Massachussetts statute.]</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The principle of the statute, be it observed, is, not merely that
|
||
|
written contracts shall be signed, but also that all contracts,
|
||
|
except for those specially exempted -- generally those that are for
|
||
|
small amounts, and are to remain in force for but a short time --
|
||
|
SHALL BE BOTH WRITTEN AND SIGNED.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The reason of the statute, on this point, is, that it is now so easy
|
||
|
a thing for men to put their contracts in writing, and sign them,
|
||
|
and their failure to do so opens the door to so much doubt, fraud,
|
||
|
and litigation, that men who neglect to have their contracts -- of
|
||
|
any considerable importance -- written and signed, ought not to have
|
||
|
the benefit of courts of justice to enforce them. And this reason
|
||
|
is a wise one; and that experience has confirmed its wisdom and
|
||
|
necessity, is demonstrated by the fact that it has been acted upon
|
||
|
in England for nearly two hundred years, and has been so nearly
|
||
|
universally adopted in this country, and that nobody thinks of
|
||
|
repealing it.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>We all know, too, how careful most men are to have their contracts
|
||
|
written and signed, even when this statute does not require it. For
|
||
|
example, most men, if they have money due them, of no larger amount
|
||
|
than five or ten dollars, are careful to take a note for it. If
|
||
|
they buy even a small bill of goods, paying for it at the time of
|
||
|
delivery, they take a receipted bill for it. If they pay a small
|
||
|
balance of a book account, or any other small debt previously
|
||
|
contracted, they take a written receipt for it.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Furthermore, the law everywhere (probably) in our country, as well
|
||
|
as in England, requires that a large class of contracts, such as
|
||
|
wills, deeds, etc., shall not only be written and signed, but also
|
||
|
sealed, witnessed, and acknowledged. And in the case of married
|
||
|
women conveying their rights in real estate, the law, in many
|
||
|
States, requires that the women shall be examined separate and apart
|
||
|
from their husbands, and declare that they sign their contracts free
|
||
|
of any fear or compulsion of their husbands.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Such are some of the precautions which the laws require, and which
|
||
|
individuals -- from motives of common prudence, even in cases not
|
||
|
required by law -- take, to put their contracts in writing, and have
|
||
|
them signed, and, to guard against all uncertainties and
|
||
|
controversies in regard to their meaning and validity. And yet we
|
||
|
have what purports, or professes, or is claimed, to be a contract --
|
||
|
the Constitution -- made eighty years ago, by men who are now all
|
||
|
dead, and who never had any power to bind US, but which (it is
|
||
|
claimed) has nevertheless bound three generations of men, consisting
|
||
|
of many millions, and which (it is claimed) will be binding upon all
|
||
|
the millions that are to come; but which nobody ever signed, se the folly and wickedness of
|
||
|
mankind.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>VI.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>It is no exaggeration, but a literal truth, to say that, by the
|
||
|
Constitution -- NOT AS I INTERPRET IT, BUT AS IT IS INTERPRETED BY
|
||
|
THOSE WH never be "questioned" as to any disposal
|
||
|
they make of them.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Thus the Constitution (Art. I, Sec. 6) provides that, "for any
|
||
|
speech or debate (or vote), in either house, they (the senators and
|
||
|
representatives) shall not be questioned in any other place."</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The whole law-making power is given to these senators and
|
||
|
representatives (when acting by a two-thirds vote); [1] and this
|
||
|
provision protects them from all responsibility for the laws they
|
||
|
make.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>-----------
|
||
|
[1] And this two-thirds vote may be but two-thirds of a quorum --
|
||
|
that is two-thirds of a majority -- instead of two-thirds of
|
||
|
the whole.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The Constitution also enables them to secure the execution of all
|
||
|
their laws, by giving them power to withhold the salaries of, and to
|
||
|
impeach and remove, all judicial and executive officers, who refuse
|
||
|
to execute them.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Thus the whole power of the government is in their hands, and they
|
||
|
are made utterly irresponsible for the use they make of it. What is
|
||
|
this but absolute, irresponsible power?</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>It is no answer to this view of the case to say that these men are
|
||
|
under oath to use their power only within certain limits; for what
|
||
|
care they, or what should they care, for oaths or limits, when it is
|
||
|
expressly provided, by the Constitution itself, that they shall
|
||
|
never be "questioned," or held to any resonsibility whatever, for
|
||
|
violating their oaths, or transgressing those limits?</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Neither is it any answer to this view of the case to say that the
|
||
|
men holding this absolute, irresponsible power, must be men chosen
|
||
|
by the people (or portions of them) to hold it. A man is none the
|
||
|
less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a
|
||
|
term of years. Neither are a people any the less slaves because
|
||
|
permitted periodically to choose new masters. What makes them
|
||
|
slaves is the fact that they now are, and are always hereafter to
|
||
|
be, in the hands of men whose power over them is, and always is to
|
||
|
be, absolute and irresponsible. [2]</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>-----------
|
||
|
[2] Of what appreciable value is it to any man, as an individual,
|
||
|
that he is allowed a voice in choosing these public masters?
|
||
|
His voice is only one of several millions.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The right of absolute and irresponsible dominion is the right of
|
||
|
property, and the right of property is the right of absolute,
|
||
|
irresponsible dominion. The two are identical; the one necessarily
|
||
|
implies the other. Neither can exist without the other. If,
|
||
|
therefore, Congress have that absolute and irresponsible law-making
|
||
|
power, which the Constitution -- according to their interpretation
|
||
|
of it -- gives them, it can only be because they own us as property.
|
||
|
If they own us as property, they are our masters, and their will is
|
||
|
our law. If they do not own us as property, they are not our
|
||
|
masters, and their will, as such, is of no authority over us.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>But these men who claim and exercise this absolute and irresponsible
|
||
|
dominion over us, dare not be consistent, and claim either to be our
|
||
|
masters, or to own us as property. They say they are only our
|
||
|
servants, agents, attorneys, and representatives. But this
|
||
|
declaration involves an absurdity, a contradiction. No man can be
|
||
|
my servant, agent, attorney, or representative, and be, at the same
|
||
|
time, uncontrollable by me, and irresponsible to me for his acts.
|
||
|
It is of no importance that I appointed him, and put all power in
|
||
|
his hands. If I made him uncontrollable by me, and irresponsible to
|
||
|
me, he is no longer my servant, agent, attorney, or representative.
|
||
|
If I gave him absolute, irresponsible power over my property, I gave
|
||
|
him the property. If I gave him absolute, irresponsible power over
|
||
|
myself, I made him my master, and gave myself to him as a slave. And
|
||
|
it is of no importance whether I called him master or servant, agent
|
||
|
or owner. The only question is, what power did I put in his hands?
|
||
|
Was it an absolute and irresponsible one? or a limited and
|
||
|
responsible one?</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>For still another reason they are neither our servants, agents,
|
||
|
attorneys, nor representatives. And that reason is, that we do not
|
||
|
make ourselves responsible for their acts. If a man is my servant,
|
||
|
agent, or attorney, I necessarily make myself responsible for all
|
||
|
his acts done within the limits of the power I have intrusted to
|
||
|
him. If I have intrusted him, as my agent, with either absolute
|
||
|
power, or any power at all, over the persons or properties of other
|
||
|
men than myself, I thereby necessarily make myself responsible to
|
||
|
those other persons for any injuries he may do them, so long as he
|
||
|
acts within the limits of the power I have granted him. But no
|
||
|
individual who may be injured in his person or property, by acts of
|
||
|
Congress, can come to the individual electors, and hold them
|
||
|
responsible for these acts of their so-called agents or
|
||
|
representatives. This fact proves that these pretended agents of
|
||
|
the people, of everybody, are really the agents of nobody.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>If, then, nobody is individually responsible for the acts of
|
||
|
Congress, the members of Congress are nobody's agents. And if they
|
||
|
are nobody's agents, they are themselves individually responsible
|
||
|
for their own acts, and for the acts of all whom they employ. And
|
||
|
the authority they are exercising is simply their own individual
|
||
|
authority; and, by the law of nature -- the highest of all laws --
|
||
|
anybody injured by their acts, anybody who is deprived by them of
|
||
|
his property or his liberty, has the same right to hold them
|
||
|
individually responsible, that he has to hold any other trespasser
|
||
|
individually responsible. He has the same right to resist them, and
|
||
|
their agents, that he has to resist any other trespassers.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>VII.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>It is plain, then, that on general principles of law and reason --
|
||
|
such principles as we all act upon in courts of justice and in
|
||
|
common life -- the Constitution is no contract; that it binds
|
||
|
nobody, and never did bind anybody; and that all those who pretend
|
||
|
to act by its authority, are really acting without any legitimate
|
||
|
authority at all; that, on general principles of law and reason,
|
||
|
they are mere usurpers, and that everybody not only has the right,
|
||
|
but is morally bound, to treat them as such.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>If the people of this country wish to maintain such a government as
|
||
|
the Constitution describes, there is no reason in the world why they
|
||
|
should not sign the instrument itself, and thus make known their
|
||
|
wishes in an open, authentic manner; in such manner as the common
|
||
|
sense and experience of mankind have shown to be reasonable and
|
||
|
necessary in such cases; AND IN SUCH MANNER AS TO MAKE THEMSELVES
|
||
|
(AS THEY OUGHT TO DO) INDIVIDUALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTS OF THE
|
||
|
GOVERNMENT. But the people have never been asked to sign it. And
|
||
|
the only reason why they have never been asked to sign it, has been
|
||
|
that it has been known that they never would sign it; that they were
|
||
|
neither such fools nor knaves as they must needs have been to be
|
||
|
willing to sign it; that (at least as it has been practically
|
||
|
interpreted) it is not what any sensible and honest man wants for
|
||
|
himself; nor such as he has any right to impose upon others. It is,
|
||
|
to all moral intents and purposes, as destitute of obligations as
|
||
|
the compacts which robbers and thieves and pirates enter into with
|
||
|
each other, but never sign.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>If any considerable number of the people believe the Constitution to
|
||
|
be good, why do they not sign it themselves, and make laws for, and
|
||
|
administer them upon, each other; leaving all other persons (who do
|
||
|
not interfere with them) in peace? Until they have tried the
|
||
|
experiment for themselves, how can they have the face to impose the
|
||
|
Constitution upon, or even to recommend it to, others? Plainly the
|
||
|
reason for absurd and inconsistent conduct is that they want the
|
||
|
Constitution, not solely for any honest or legitimate use it can be
|
||
|
of to themselves or others, but for the dishonest and illegitimate
|
||
|
power it gives them over the persons and properties of others. But
|
||
|
for this latter reason, all their eulogiums on the Constitution, all
|
||
|
their exhortations, and all their expenditures of money and blood to
|
||
|
sustain it, would be wanting.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>VIII.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The Constitution itself, then, being of no authority, on what
|
||
|
authority does our government practically rest? On what ground can
|
||
|
those who pretend to administer it, claim the right to seize men's
|
||
|
property, to restrain them of their natural liberty of action,
|
||
|
industry, and trade, and to kill all who deny their authority to
|
||
|
dispose of men's properties, liberties, and lives at their pleasure
|
||
|
or discretion?</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The most they can say, in answer to this question, is, that some
|
||
|
half, two-thirds, or three-fourths, of the male adults of the
|
||
|
country have a TACIT UNDERSTANDING that they will maintain a
|
||
|
government under the Constitution; that they will select, by ballot,
|
||
|
the persons to administer it; and that those persons who may receive
|
||
|
a majority, or a plurality, of their ballots, shall act as their
|
||
|
representatives, and administer the Constitution in their name, and
|
||
|
by their authority.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>But this tacit understanding (admitting it to exist) cannot at all
|
||
|
justify the conclusion drawn from it. A tacit understanding between
|
||
|
A, B, and C, that they will, by ballot, depute D as their agent, to
|
||
|
deprive me of my property, liberty, or life, cannot at all authorize
|
||
|
D to do so. He is none the less a robber, tyrant, and murderer,
|
||
|
because he claims to act as their agent, than he would be if he
|
||
|
avowedly acted on his own responsibility alone.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Neither am I bound to recognize him as their agent, nor can he
|
||
|
legitimately claim to be their agent, when he brings no WRITTEN
|
||
|
authority from them accrediting him as such. I am under no
|
||
|
obligation to take his word as to who his principals may be, or
|
||
|
whether he has any. Bringing no credentials, I have a right to say
|
||
|
he has no such authority even as he claims to have: and that he is
|
||
|
therefore intending to rob, enslave, or murder me on his own
|
||
|
account.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>This tacit understanding, therefore, among the voters of the
|
||
|
country, amounts to nothing as an authority to their agents.
|
||
|
Neither do the ballots by which they select their agents, avail any
|
||
|
more than does their tacit understanding; for their ballots are
|
||
|
given in secret, and therefore in such a way as to avoid any
|
||
|
personal responsibility for the acts of their agents.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>No body of men can be said to authorize a man to act as their agent,
|
||
|
to the injury of a third person, unless they do it in so open and
|
||
|
authentic a manner as to make themselves personally responsible for
|
||
|
his acts. None of the voters in this country appoint their
|
||
|
political agents in any open, authentic manner, or in any manner to
|
||
|
make themselves responsible for their acts. Therefore these
|
||
|
pretended agents cannot legitimately claim to be really agents.
|
||
|
Somebody must be responsible for the acts of these pretended agents;
|
||
|
and if they cannot show any open and authentic credentials from
|
||
|
their principals, they cannot, in law or reason, be said to have any
|
||
|
principals. The maxim applies here, that what does not appear, does
|
||
|
not exist. If they can show no principals, they have none.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>But even these pretended agents do not themselves know who their
|
||
|
pretended principals are. These latter act in secret; for acting by
|
||
|
secret ballot is acting in secret as much as if they were to meet in
|
||
|
secret conclave in the darkness of the night. And they are
|
||
|
personally as much unknown to the agents they select, as they are to
|
||
|
others. No pretended agent therefore can ever know by whose ballots
|
||
|
he is selected, or consequently who his real principles are. Not
|
||
|
knowing who his principles are, he has no right to say that he has
|
||
|
any. He can, at most, say only that he is the agent of a secret
|
||
|
band of robbers and murderers, who are bound by that faith which
|
||
|
prevails among confederates in crime, to stand by him, if his acts,
|
||
|
done in their name, shall be resisted.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Men honestly engaged in attempting to establish justice in the
|
||
|
world, have no occasion thus to act in secret; or to appoint agents
|
||
|
to do acts for which they (the principals) are not willing to be
|
||
|
responsible.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government
|
||
|
is a secret band of robbers and murderers. Open despotism is better
|
||
|
than this. The single despot stands out in the face of all men, and
|
||
|
says: I am the State: My will is law: I am your master: I take the
|
||
|
responsibility of my acts: The only arbiter I acknowledge is the
|
||
|
sword: If anyone denies my right, let him try conclusions with me.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>But a secret government is little less than a government of
|
||
|
assassins. Under it, a man knows not who his tyrants are, until
|
||
|
they have struck, and perhaps not then. He may GUESS, beforehand,
|
||
|
as to some of his immediate neighbors. But he really knows nothing.
|
||
|
The man to whom he would most naturally fly for protection, may
|
||
|
prove an enemy, when the time of trial comes.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>This is the kind of government we have; and it is the only one we
|
||
|
are likely to have, until men are ready to say: We will consent to
|
||
|
no Constitution, except such an one as we are neither ashamed nor
|
||
|
afraid to sign; and we will authorize no government to do anything
|
||
|
in our name which we are not willing to be personally responsible
|
||
|
for.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>IX.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>What is the motive to the secret ballot? This, and only this: Like
|
||
|
other confederates in crime, those who use it are not friends, but
|
||
|
enemies; and they are afraid to be known, and to have their
|
||
|
individual doings known, even to each other. They can contrive to
|
||
|
bring about a sufficient understanding to enable them to act in
|
||
|
concert against other persons; but beyond this they have no
|
||
|
confidence, and no friendship, among themselves. In fact, they are
|
||
|
engaged quite as much in schemes for plundering each other, as in
|
||
|
plundering those who are not of them. And it is perfectly well
|
||
|
understood among them that the strongest party among them will, in
|
||
|
certain contingencies, murder each other by the hundreds of
|
||
|
thousands (as they lately did do) to accomplish their purposes
|
||
|
against each other. Hence they dare not be known, and have their
|
||
|
individual doings known, even to each other. And this is avowedly
|
||
|
the only reason for the ballot: for a secret government; a
|
||
|
government by secret bands of robbers and murderers. And we are
|
||
|
insane enough to call this liberty! To be a member of this secret
|
||
|
band of robbers and murderers is esteemed a privilege and an honor!
|
||
|
Without this privilege, a man is considered a slave; but with it a
|
||
|
free man! With it he is considered a free man, because he has the
|
||
|
same power to secretly (by secret ballot) procure the robbery,
|
||
|
enslavement, and murder of another man, and that other man has to
|
||
|
procure his robbery, enslavement, and murder. And this they call
|
||
|
equal rights!</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>If any number of men, many or few, claim the right to govern the
|
||
|
people of this country, let them make and sign an open compact with
|
||
|
each other to do so. Let them thus make themselves individually
|
||
|
known to those whom they propose to govern. And let them thus
|
||
|
openly take the legitimate responsibility of their acts. How many
|
||
|
of those who now support the Constitution, will ever do this? How
|
||
|
many will ever dare openly proclaim their right to govern? or take
|
||
|
the legitimate responsibility of their acts? Not one!</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>X.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>It is obvious that, on general principles of law and reason, there
|
||
|
exists no such thing as a government created by, or resting upon,
|
||
|
any consent, compact, or agreement of "the people of the United
|
||
|
States" with each other; that the only visible, tangible,
|
||
|
responsible government that exists, is that of a few individuals
|
||
|
only, who act in concert, and call themselves by the several names
|
||
|
of senators, representatives, presidents, judges, marshals,
|
||
|
treasurers, collectors, generals, colonels, captains, etc., etc.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>On general principles of law and reason, it is of no importance
|
||
|
whatever that these few individuals profess to be the agents and
|
||
|
representatives of "the people of the United States"; since they can
|
||
|
show no credentials from the people themselves; they were never
|
||
|
appointed as agents or representatives in any open, authentic
|
||
|
manner; they do not themselves know, and have no means of knowing,
|
||
|
and cannot prove, who their principals (as they call them) are
|
||
|
individually; and consequently cannot, in law or reason, be said to
|
||
|
have any principals at all.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>It is obvious, too, that if these alleged principals ever did
|
||
|
appoint these pretended agents, or representatives, they appointed
|
||
|
them secretly (by secret ballot), and in a way to avoid all personal
|
||
|
responsibility for their acts; that, at most, these alleged
|
||
|
principals put these pretended agents forward for the most criminal
|
||
|
purposes, viz.: to plunder the people of their property, and
|
||
|
restrain them of their liberty; and that the only authority that
|
||
|
these alleged principals have for so doing, is simply a TACIT
|
||
|
UNDERSTANDING among themselves that they will imprison, shoot, or
|
||
|
hang every man who resists the exactions and restraints which their
|
||
|
agents or representatives may impose upon them.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Thus it is obvious that the only visible, tangible government we
|
||
|
have is made up of these professed agents or representatives of a
|
||
|
secret band of robbers and murderers, who, to cover up, or gloss
|
||
|
over, their robberies and murders, have taken to themselves the
|
||
|
title of "the people of the United States"; and who, on the pretense
|
||
|
of being "the people of the United States," assert their right to
|
||
|
subject to their dominion, and to control and dispose of at their
|
||
|
pleasure, all property and persons found in the United States.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>XI.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>On general principles of law and reason, the oaths which these
|
||
|
pretended agents of the people take "to support the Constitution,"
|
||
|
are of no validity or obligation. And why? For this, if for no
|
||
|
other reason, viz., THAT THEY ARE GIVEN TO NOBODY. There is no
|
||
|
privity (as the lawyers say) -- that is, no mutual recognition,
|
||
|
consent, and agreement -- between those who take these oaths, and
|
||
|
any other persons.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>If I go upon Boston Common, and in the presence of a hundred
|
||
|
thousand people, men, women and children, with whom I have no
|
||
|
contract upon the subject, take an oath that I will enforce upon
|
||
|
them the laws of Moses, of Lycurgus, of Solon, of Justinian, or of
|
||
|
Alfred, that oath is, on general principles of law and reason, of no
|
||
|
obligation. It is of no obligation, not merely because it is
|
||
|
intrinsically a criminal one, BUT ALSO BECAUSE IT IS GIVEN TO
|
||
|
NOBODY, and consequently pledges my faith to nobody. It is merely
|
||
|
given to the winds.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>It would not alter the case at all to say that, among these hundred
|
||
|
thousand persons, in whose presence the oath was taken, there were
|
||
|
two, three, or five thousand male adults, who had SECRETLY -- by
|
||
|
secret ballot, and in a way to avoid making themselves INDIVIDUALLY
|
||
|
known to me, or to the remainder of the hundred thousand --
|
||
|
designated me as their agent to rule, control, plunder, and, if need
|
||
|
be, murder, these hundred thousand people. The fact that they had
|
||
|
designated me secretly, and in a manner to prevent my knowing them
|
||
|
individually, prevents all privity between them and me; and
|
||
|
consequently makes it impossible that there can be any contract, or
|
||
|
pledge of faith, on my part towards them; for it is impossible that
|
||
|
I can pledge my faith, in any legal sense, to a man whom I neither
|
||
|
know, nor have any means of knowing, individually.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>So far as I am concerned, then, these two, three, or five thousand
|
||
|
persons are a secret band of robbers and murderers, who have
|
||
|
secretly, and in a way to save themselves from all responsibility
|
||
|
for my acts, designated me as their agent; and have, through some
|
||
|
other agent, or pretended agent, made their wishes known to me. But
|
||
|
being, nevertheless, individually unknown to me, and having no open,
|
||
|
authentic contract with me, my oath is, on general principles of law
|
||
|
and reason, of no validity as a pledge of faith to them. And being
|
||
|
no ther persons in the country, and, so far as they
|
||
|
can, even in neighboring countries; and to kill every man who shall
|
||
|
attempt to defend his person and property against their schemes of
|
||
|
plunder and dominion. Who these men are, INDIVIDUALLY, I have no
|
||
|
certain means of knowing, for they sign no papers, and give no open,
|
||
|
authentic evidence of their individual membership. They are of making known, their individual membeship,
|
||
|
otherwise than by giving their votes secretly for certain agents to
|
||
|
do their will. \ But although these men are individually unknown,
|
||
|
both to each other and to other persons, it is generally understood
|
||
|
in the country that none but male persons, of the age of twenty-one
|
||
|
years and upwards, can be members. It is also generally understood
|
||
|
that ALL male persons, born in the country, having certain
|
||
|
complexions, and (in some localities) certain amounts of property,
|
||
|
and (in certain cases) even persons of foreign birth, aret it appears that usually not more than onehalf,
|
||
|
two-thirds, or in some cases, three-fourths, of all who are thus
|
||
|
permitted to become members of the band, ever exercise, or
|
||
|
consequently prove, their actual membership, in the only mode in
|
||
|
which they ordinarily can exercise or prove it, viz., by giving
|
||
|
their votes secretly for the officers or agents of the band. The
|
||
|
number of these secret votes, so far as we have any account of them,
|
||
|
varies greatly from year to year, thus tending to prove that the
|
||
|
band, instead of being a permanent organization, is a merely PRO
|
||
|
TEMPORE affair with those who choose to act with it for the time
|
||
|
being. \ The gross number of these secret votes, or what purports to
|
||
|
be their gross number, in different localities, is occasionally
|
||
|
published. Whether these reports are accurate or not, we have no
|
||
|
means of knowing. It is generally supposed that great frauds are
|
||
|
often committed in depositing them. They are understood to be
|
||
|
received and counted by certain men, who are themselves appointed
|
||
|
for that purpose by the same secret process by which all other
|
||
|
officers and agents of the band are selected. to the
|
||
|
reports of these receivers of votes (for whose accuracy or honesty,
|
||
|
however, I cannot vouch), and according to my best knowledge of the
|
||
|
whole number of male persons "in my district," who (it is supposed)
|
||
|
were permitted to vote, it would appear that one-half, two-thirds or
|
||
|
three-fourths actually did vote. Who the men were, individually, who
|
||
|
cast these votes, I have no knowledge, for the whole thing was done
|
||
|
secretly. But of the secret votes thus given for what they call a
|
||
|
"member of Congress," the receivers reported that I had a majority,
|
||
|
or at least a larger number than any other one person. And it is
|
||
|
only by virtue of such a designation that I am now here to act in
|
||
|
concert with other persons similarly selected in other parts of the
|
||
|
country.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>It is understood among those who sent me here, that all persons so
|
||
|
selected, will, on coming together at the City of Washington, take
|
||
|
an oath in each other's presence "to support the Constitution of the
|
||
|
United States." By this is meant a certain paper that was drawn up
|
||
|
eighty years ago. It was never signed by anybody, and apparently
|
||
|
has no obligation, and never had any obligation, as a contract. In
|
||
|
fact, few persons ever read it, and doubtless much the largest
|
||
|
number of those who voted for me and the others, never even saw it,
|
||
|
or now pretend to know what it means. Nevertheless, it is often
|
||
|
spoken of in the country as "the Constitution of the United States";
|
||
|
and for some reason or other, the men who sent me here, seem to
|
||
|
expect that I, and all with whom I act, will swear to carry this
|
||
|
Constitution into effect. I am therefore ready to take this oath,
|
||
|
and to co-operate with all others, similarly selected, who are ready
|
||
|
to take the same oath.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>This is the most that any member of Congress can say in proof that
|
||
|
he has any constituency; that he represents anybody; that his oath
|
||
|
"to support the Constitution," IS GIVEN TO ANYBODY, or pledges his
|
||
|
faith to ANYBODY. He has no open, written, or other authentic
|
||
|
evidence, such as is required in all other cases, that he was ever
|
||
|
appointed the agent or representative of anybody. He has no written
|
||
|
power of attorney from any single individual. He has no such legal
|
||
|
knowledge as is required in all other cases, by which he can
|
||
|
identify a single one of those who pretend to have appointed him to
|
||
|
represent them.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Of course his oath, professedly given to them, "to support the
|
||
|
Constitution," is, on general principles of law and reason, an oath
|
||
|
given to nobody. It pledges his faith to nobody. If he fails to
|
||
|
fulfil his oath, not a single person can come forward, and say to
|
||
|
him, you have betrayed me, or broken faith with me.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>No one can come forward and say to him: I appointed you my attorney
|
||
|
to act for me. I required you to swear that, as my attorney, you
|
||
|
would support the Constitution. You promised me that you would do
|
||
|
so; and now you have forfeited the oath you gave to me. No single
|
||
|
individual can say this.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>No open, avowed, or responsible association, or body of men, can
|
||
|
come forward and say to him: We appointed you our attorney, to act
|
||
|
forus. We required you to swear that, as our attorney, you would
|
||
|
support the Constitution. You promised us that you would do so; and
|
||
|
now you have forfeited the oath you gave to us.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>No open, avowed, or responsible association, or body of men, can say
|
||
|
this to him; because there is no such association or body of men in
|
||
|
existence. If any one should assert that there is such an
|
||
|
association, let him prove, if he can, who compose it. Let him
|
||
|
produce, if he can, any open, written, or other authentic contract,
|
||
|
signed or agreed to by these men; forming themselves into an
|
||
|
association; making themselves known as such to the world;
|
||
|
appointing him as their agent; and making themselves individually,
|
||
|
or as an association, responsible for his acts, done by their
|
||
|
authority. Until all this can be shown, no one can say that, in any
|
||
|
legitimate sense, there is any such association; or that he is their
|
||
|
agent; or that he ever gave his oath to them; or ever pledged his
|
||
|
faith to them.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>On general principles of law and reason, it would be a sufficient
|
||
|
answer for him to say, to all individuals, and to all pretended
|
||
|
associations of individuals, who should accuse him of a breach of
|
||
|
faith to them:</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>I never knew you. Where is your evidence ior robbing other
|
||
|
persons; or that I would take all the personal risk of the
|
||
|
robberies, and pay over the proceeds to you, you were particularly
|
||
|
simple. As I took all the risk of my robberies, I propose to take
|
||
|
all the profits. Begone! You are fools, as well as villains. If I
|
||
|
gave my oath to anybody, I gave it to other persons than you. But I
|
||
|
really gave it to nobody. I o expected me to pay it
|
||
|
over to you, you relied only upon that honor that is said to prevail
|
||
|
among thieves. You now understand that that is a very poor
|
||
|
reliance. I trust you may become wise enough to never rely upon it
|
||
|
again. If I have any duty in the matter, it is to give back the
|
||
|
money to those from whom I took it; not to pay it over to villains
|
||
|
such as you.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>XIII.
|
||
|
They are necessarily given to nobody; because there
|
||
|
is no open, authentic association, to which they can join
|
||
|
themselves; or to whom, as individuals, they can pledge their faith.
|
||
|
No such association, or organization, as "the people of the United
|
||
|
States," having ever been formed by any open, written, authentic, or
|
||
|
voluntary contract, there is, on general principles of law andly given only to the winds. They cant be said to be
|
||
|
given to any man, or body of men, as individuals, because no man, or
|
||
|
body of men, can come forward WITH ANY PROOF that the oaths were
|
||
|
given to them, as individuals, or to any association of which they
|
||
|
are members. To say that there is a tacit understanding among a
|
||
|
portion of the male adults of the country, that they will States to their dominion; but that they wil keep themselves
|
||
|
personally concealed by doing all their acts secretly, is wholly
|
||
|
insufficient, on general principles of law and reason, to prove the
|
||
|
existence of any such association, or organization, as "the people
|
||
|
of the United States"; or consequently to prove that the oaths of
|
||
|
foreigners were given to any such association.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Xbey the
|
||
|
laws of Congress, support the Union, and the like, are of no
|
||
|
validity. Such oaths are invalid, not only because they were
|
||
|
extorted by military power, and threats of confiscation, and because
|
||
|
they are in contravention of men's natural right to do as they
|
||
|
please about supporting the government, BUT ALSO BECAUSE THEY WERE
|
||
|
GIVEN TO NOBODY. They were nominally given to "the United States."
|
||
|
But being nominally given to "the United States," they were
|
||
|
necessarily given to nobody, because, on general principles of law
|
||
|
and reason, there were no "United States," to whom the oaths could
|
||
|
be given. That is to say, there was no open, authentic, avowed,
|
||
|
legitimate association, corporation, or body of men, known as "the
|
||
|
United States," or as "the people of the United States," to whom the
|
||
|
oaths could have been given. If anybody says there was such a
|
||
|
corporation, let him state who were the individuals that composed
|
||
|
it, and how and when they became a corporation. Were Mr. A, Mr. B,
|
||
|
and Mr. C members of it? If so, where are their signatures? Where
|
||
|
the evidence of their membership? Where the record? Where the
|
||
|
open, authentic proof? There is none. Therefore, in law and
|
||
|
reason, there was no such corporation.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>On general principles of law and reason, every corporation,
|
||
|
association, or organized body of men, having a legitimate corporate
|
||
|
existence, and legitimate corporate rights, must consist of certain
|
||
|
known individuals, who can prove, by legitimate and reasonable
|
||
|
evidence, their membership. But nothing of this kind can be proved
|
||
|
in regard to the corporation, or body of men, who call themselves
|
||
|
"the United States." Not a man of them, in all the Northern States,
|
||
|
can prove by any legitimate evidence, such as is required to prove
|
||
|
membership in other legal corporations, that he himself, or any
|
||
|
other man whom he can name, is a member of any corporation or
|
||
|
association called "the United States," or "the people of the United
|
||
|
States," or, consequently, that there is any such corporation. And
|
||
|
since no such corporation can be proved to exist, it cannot of
|
||
|
course be proved that the oaths of Southern men were given to any
|
||
|
such corporation. The most that can be claimed is that the oaths
|
||
|
were given to a secret band of robbers and murderers, who called
|
||
|
themselves "the United States," and extorted those oaths. But that
|
||
|
is certainly not enough to prove that the oaths are of any
|
||
|
obligation.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>XV.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>On general principles of law and reason, the oaths of soldiers, that
|
||
|
they will serve a given number of years, that they will obey the the
|
||
|
orders of their superior officers, that they will bear true
|
||
|
allegiance to the government, and so forth, are of no obligation.
|
||
|
Independently of the criminality of an oath, that, for a given
|
||
|
number of years, he will kill all whom he may be commanded to kill,
|
||
|
without exercising his own judgment or conscience as to the justice
|
||
|
or necessity of such killing, there is this further reason why a
|
||
|
soldier's oath is of no obligation, viz., that, like all the other
|
||
|
oaths that have now been mentioned, IT IS GIVEN TO NOBODY. There
|
||
|
being, in no legitimate sense, any such corporation, or nation, as
|
||
|
"the United States," nor, consequently, in any legitimate sense, any
|
||
|
such government as "the government of the United States," a
|
||
|
soldier's oath given to, or contract made with, such a nation or
|
||
|
government, is necessarily an oath given to, or contract made with,
|
||
|
nobody. Consequently such an oath or contract can be of no
|
||
|
obligation.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>XVI.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>On general principles of law and reason, the treaties, so called,
|
||
|
which purport to be entered into with other nations, by persons
|
||
|
calling themselves ambassadors, secretaries, presidents, and
|
||
|
senators of the United States, in the name, and in behalf, of "the
|
||
|
people of the United States," are of no validity. These so-called
|
||
|
ambassadors, secretaries, presidents, and senators, who claim to be
|
||
|
the agents of "the people of the United States" for making these
|
||
|
treaties, can show no open, written, or other authentic evidence
|
||
|
that either the whole "people of the United States," or any other
|
||
|
open, avowed, responsible body of men, calling themselves by that
|
||
|
name, ever authorized these pretended ambassadors and others to make
|
||
|
treaties in the name of, or binding upon any one of, "the people of
|
||
|
the United States," or any other open, avowed, responsible body of
|
||
|
men, calling themselves by that name, ever authorized these
|
||
|
pretended ambassadors, secretaries, and others, in their name and
|
||
|
behalf, to recognize certain other persons, calling themselves
|
||
|
emperors, kings, queens, and the like, as the rightful rulers,
|
||
|
sovereigns, masters, or representatives of the different peoples
|
||
|
whom they assume to govern, to represent, and to bind.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The "nations," as they are called, with whom our pretended
|
||
|
ambassadors, secretaries, presidents, and senators profess to make
|
||
|
treaties, are as much myths as our own. On general principles of
|
||
|
law and reason, there are no such "nations." That is to say,
|
||
|
neither the whole people of England, for example, nor any open,
|
||
|
avowed, responsible body of men, calling themselves by that name,
|
||
|
ever, by any open, written, or other authentic contract with each
|
||
|
other, formed themselves into any bona fide, legitimate association
|
||
|
or organization, or authorized any king, queen, or other
|
||
|
representative to make treaties in their name, or to bind them,
|
||
|
either individually, or as an association, by such treaties.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Our pretended treaties, then, being made with no legitimate or bona
|
||
|
fide nations, or representatives of nations, and being made, on our
|
||
|
part, by persons who have no legitimate authority to act for us,
|
||
|
have instrinsically no more validity than a pretended treaty made by
|
||
|
the Man in the Moon with the king of the Pleiades.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>XVII.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>On general principles of law and reason, debts contracted in the
|
||
|
name of "the United States," or of "the people of the United
|
||
|
States," are of no validity. It is utterly absurd to pretend that
|
||
|
debts to the amount of twenty-five hundred millions of dollars are
|
||
|
binding upon thirty-five or forty millions of people [the
|
||
|
approximate national debt and population in 1870], when there is not
|
||
|
a particle of legitimate evidence -- such as would be required to
|
||
|
prove a private debt -- that can be produced against any one of
|
||
|
them, that either he, or his properly authorized attorney, ever
|
||
|
contracted to pay one cent.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Certainly, neither the whole people of the United States, nor any
|
||
|
number of them, ever separately or individually contracted to pay a
|
||
|
cent of these debts.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Certainly, also, neither the whole people of the United States, nor
|
||
|
any number of them, every, by any open, written, or other authentic
|
||
|
and voluntary contract, united themselves as a firm, corporation, or
|
||
|
association, by the name of "the United States," or "the people of
|
||
|
the United States," and authorized their agents to contract debts in
|
||
|
their name.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Certainly, too, there is in existence no such firm, corporation, or
|
||
|
association as "the United States," or "the people of the United
|
||
|
States," formed by any open, written, or other authentic and
|
||
|
voluntary contract, and having corporate property with which to pay
|
||
|
these debts.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>How, then, is it possible, on any general principle of law or
|
||
|
reason, that debts that are binding upon nobody individually, can be
|
||
|
binding upon forty millions of people collectively, when, on general
|
||
|
and legitimate principles of law and reason, these forty millions of
|
||
|
people neither have, nor ever had, any corporate property? never
|
||
|
made any corporate or individual contract? and neither have, nor
|
||
|
ever had, any corporate existence?</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Who, then, created these debts, in the name of "the United States"?
|
||
|
Why, at most, only a few persons, calling themselves "members of
|
||
|
Congress," etc., who pretended to represent "the people of the
|
||
|
United States," but who really represented only a secret band of
|
||
|
robbers and murderers, who wanted money to carry on the robberies
|
||
|
and murders in which they were then engaged; and who intended to
|
||
|
extort from the future people of the United States, by robbery and
|
||
|
threats of murder (and real murder, if that should prove necessary),
|
||
|
the means to pay these debts.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>This band of robbers and murderers, who were the real principals in
|
||
|
contracting these debts, is a secret one, because its members have
|
||
|
never entered into any open, written, avowed, or authentic contract,
|
||
|
by which they may be individually known to the world, or even to
|
||
|
each other. Their real or pretended representatives, who contracted
|
||
|
these debts in their name, were selected (if selected at all) for
|
||
|
that purpose secretly (by secret ballot), and in a way to furnish
|
||
|
evidence against none of the principals INDIVIDUALLY; and these
|
||
|
principals were really known INDIVIDUALLY neither to their pretended
|
||
|
representatives who contracted these debts in their behalf, nor to
|
||
|
those who lent the money. The money, therefore, was all borrowed
|
||
|
and lent in the dark; that is, by men who did not see each other's
|
||
|
faces, or know each other's names; who could not then, and cannot
|
||
|
now, identify each other as principals in the transactions; and who
|
||
|
consequently can prove no contract with each other.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Furthermore, the money was all lent and borrowed for criminal
|
||
|
purposes; that is, for purposes of robbery and murder; and for this
|
||
|
reason the contracts were all intrinsically void; and would have
|
||
|
been so, even though the real parties, borrowers and lenders, had
|
||
|
come face to face, and made their contracts openly, in their own
|
||
|
proper names.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Furthermore, this secret band of robbers and murderers, who were the
|
||
|
real borrowers of this money, having no legitimate corporate
|
||
|
existence, have no corporate property with which to pay these debts.
|
||
|
They do indeed pretend to own large tracts of wild lands, lying
|
||
|
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and between the Gulf of
|
||
|
Mexico and the North Pole. But, on general principles of law and
|
||
|
reason, they might as well pretend to own the Atlantic and Pacific
|
||
|
Oceans themselves; or the atmosphere and the sunlight; and to hold
|
||
|
them, and dispose of them, for the payment of these debts.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Having no corporate property with which to pay what purports to be
|
||
|
their corporate debts, this secret band of robbers and murderers are
|
||
|
really bankrupt. They have nothing to pay with. In fact, they do
|
||
|
not propose to pay their debts otherwise than from the proceeds of
|
||
|
their future robberies and murders. These are confessedly their
|
||
|
sole reliance; and were known to be such by the lenders of the
|
||
|
money, at the time the money was lent. And it was, therefore,
|
||
|
virtually a part of the contract, that the money should be repaid
|
||
|
only from the proceeds of these future robberies and murders. For
|
||
|
this reason, if for no other, the contracts were void from the
|
||
|
beginning.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>In fact, these apparently two classes, borrowers and lenders, were
|
||
|
really one and the same class. They borrowed and lent money from
|
||
|
and to themselves. They themselves were not only part and parcel,
|
||
|
but the very life and soul, of this secret band of robbers and
|
||
|
murderers, who borrowed and spent the money. Individually they
|
||
|
furnished money for a common enterprise; taking, in return, what
|
||
|
purported to be corporate promises for individual loans. The only
|
||
|
excuse they had for taking these so-called corporate promises of,
|
||
|
for individual loans by, the same parties, was that they might have
|
||
|
some apparent excuse for the future robberies of the band (that is,
|
||
|
to pay the debts of the corporation), and that they might also know
|
||
|
what shares they were to be respectively entitled to out of the
|
||
|
proceeds of their future robberies.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Finally, if these debts had been created for the most innocent and
|
||
|
honest purposes, and in the most open and honest manner, by the real
|
||
|
parties to the contracts, these parties could thereby have bound
|
||
|
nobody but themselves, and no property but their own. They could
|
||
|
have bound nobody that should have come after them, and no property
|
||
|
subsequently created by, or belonging to, other persons.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>XVIII.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The Constitution having never been signed by anybody; and there
|
||
|
being no other open, written, or authentic contract between any
|
||
|
parties whatever, by virtue of which the United States government,
|
||
|
so called, is maintained; and it being well known that none but male
|
||
|
persons, of twenty-one years of age and upwards, are allowed any
|
||
|
voice in the government; and it being also well known that a large
|
||
|
number of these adult persons seldom or never vote at all; and that
|
||
|
all those who do vote, do so secretly (by secret ballot), and in a
|
||
|
way to prevent their individual votes being known, either to the
|
||
|
world, or even to each other; and consequently in a way to make no
|
||
|
one openly responsible for the acts of their agents, or
|
||
|
representatives, -- all these things being known, the questions
|
||
|
arise: WHO compose the real governing power in the country? Who
|
||
|
are the men, THE RESPONSIBLE MEN, who rob us of our property?
|
||
|
Restrain us of our liberty? Subject us to their arbitrary dominion?
|
||
|
And devastate our hooms, and shoot us down by the hundreds of
|
||
|
thousands, if we resist? How shall we find these men? How shall we
|
||
|
know them from others? How shall we defend ourselves and our
|
||
|
property against them? Who, of our neighbors, are members of this
|
||
|
secret band of robbers and murderers? How can we know which are
|
||
|
THEIR houses, that we may burn or demolish them? Which THEIR
|
||
|
property, that we may destroy it? Which their persons, that we may
|
||
|
kill them, and rid the world and ourselves of such tyrants and
|
||
|
monsters?</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>These are questions that must be answered, before men can be free;
|
||
|
before they can protect themselves against this secret band of
|
||
|
robbers and murderers, who now plunder, enslave, and destroy them.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The answer to these questions is, that only those who have the will
|
||
|
and power to shoot down their fellow men, are the real rulers in
|
||
|
this, as in all other (so-called) civilized countries; for by no
|
||
|
others will civilized men be robbed, or enslaved.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Among savages, mere physical strength, on the part of one man, may
|
||
|
enable him to rob, enslave, or kill another man. Among barbarians,
|
||
|
mere physical strength, on the part of a body of men, disciplined,
|
||
|
and acting in concert, though with very little money or other
|
||
|
wealth, may, under some circumstances, enable them to rob, enslave,
|
||
|
or kill another body of men, as numerous, or perhaps even more
|
||
|
numerous, than themselves. And among both savages and barbarians,
|
||
|
mere want may sometimes compel one man to sell himself as a slave to
|
||
|
another. But with (so-called) civilized peoples, among whom
|
||
|
knowledge, wealth, and the means of acting in concert, have becom
|
||
|
diffusede; and who have invented such weapons and other means of
|
||
|
defense as to render mere physical strength of less importance; and
|
||
|
by whom soldiers in any requisite number, and other
|
||
|
instrumentalities of war in any requisite amount, can always be had
|
||
|
for money, the question of war, and consequently the question of
|
||
|
power, is little else than a mere question of money. As a necessary
|
||
|
consequence, those who stand ready to furnish this money, are the
|
||
|
real rulers. It is so in Europe, and it is so in this country.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>In Europe, the nominal rulers, the emperors and kings and
|
||
|
parliaments, are anything but the real rulers of their respective
|
||
|
countries. They are little or nothing else than mere tools,
|
||
|
employed by the wealthy to rob, enslave, and (if need be) murder
|
||
|
those who have less wealth, or none at all.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The Rosthchilds, and that class of money-lenders of whom they are
|
||
|
the representatives and agents -- men who never think of lending a
|
||
|
shilling to their next-door neighbors, for purposes of honest
|
||
|
industry, unless upon the most ample security, and at the highest
|
||
|
rate of interest -- stand ready, at all times, to lend money in
|
||
|
unlimited amounts to those robbers and murderers, who call
|
||
|
themselves governments, to be expended in shooting down those who do
|
||
|
not submit quietly to being robbed and enslaved.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>They lend their money in this manner, knowing that it is to be
|
||
|
expended in murdering their fellow men, for simply seeking their
|
||
|
liberty and their rights; knowing also that neither the interest nor
|
||
|
the principal will ever be paid, except as it will be extorted under
|
||
|
terror of the repetition of such murders as those for which the
|
||
|
money lent is to be expended.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>These money-lenders, the Rosthchilds, for example, say to
|
||
|
themselves: If we lend a hundred millions sterling to the queen and
|
||
|
parliament of England, it will enable them to murder twenty, fifty,
|
||
|
or a hundred thousand people in England, Ireland, or India; and the
|
||
|
terror inspired by such wholesale slaughter, will enable them to
|
||
|
keep the whole people of those countries in subjection for twenty,
|
||
|
or perhaps fifty, years to come; to control all their trade and
|
||
|
industry; and to extort from them large amounts of money, under the
|
||
|
name of taxes; and from the wealth thus extorted from them, they
|
||
|
(the queen and parliament) can afford to pay us a higher rate of
|
||
|
interest for our money than we can get in any other way. Or, if we
|
||
|
lend this sum to the emperor of Austria, it will enable him to
|
||
|
murder so many of his people as to strike terror into the rest, and
|
||
|
thus enable him to keep them in subjection, and extort money from
|
||
|
them, for twenty or fifty years to come. And they say the same in
|
||
|
regard to the emperor of Russia, the king of Prussia, the emperor of
|
||
|
France, or any other ruler, so called, who, in their judgment, will
|
||
|
be able, by murdering a reasonable portion of his people, to keep
|
||
|
the rest in subjection, and extort money from them, for a long time
|
||
|
to come, to pay the interest and the principal of the money lent
|
||
|
him.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>And why are these men so ready to lend money for murdering their
|
||
|
fellow men? Soley for this reason, viz., that such loans are
|
||
|
considered better investments than loans for purposes of honest
|
||
|
industry. They pay higher rates of interest; and it is less trouble
|
||
|
to look after them. This is the whole matter.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The question of making these loans is, with these lenders, a mere
|
||
|
question of pecuniary profit. They lend money to be expended in
|
||
|
robbing, enslaving, and murdering their fellow men, solely because,
|
||
|
on the whole, such loans pay better than any others. They are no
|
||
|
respecters of persons, no superstitious fools, that reverence
|
||
|
monarchs. They care no more for a king, or an emperor, than they do
|
||
|
for a beggar, except as he is a better customer, and can pay them
|
||
|
better interest for their money. If they doubt his ability to make
|
||
|
his murders successful for maintaining his power, and thus extorting
|
||
|
money from his people in future, they dismiss him unceremoniously as
|
||
|
they would dismiss any other hopeless bankrupt, who should want to
|
||
|
borrow money to save himself from open insolvency.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>When these great lenders of blood-money, like the Rothschilds, have
|
||
|
loaned vast sums in this way, for purposes of murder, to an emperor
|
||
|
or a king, they sell out the bonds taken by them, in small amounts,
|
||
|
to anybody, and everybody, who are disposed to buy them at
|
||
|
satisfactory prices, to hold as investments. They (the Rothschilds)
|
||
|
thus soon get back their money, with great profits; and are now
|
||
|
ready to lend money in the same way again to any other robber and
|
||
|
murderer, called an emperor or king, who, they think, is likely to
|
||
|
be successful in his robberies and murders, and able to pay a good
|
||
|
price for the money necessary to carry them on.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>This business of lending blood-money is one of the most thoroughly
|
||
|
sordid, cold-blooded, and criminal that was ever carried on, to any
|
||
|
considerable extent, amongst human beings. It is like lending money
|
||
|
to slave traders, or to common robbers and pirates, to be repaid out
|
||
|
of their plunder. And the men who loan money to governments, so
|
||
|
called, for the purpose of enabling the latter to rob, enslave, and
|
||
|
murder their people, are among the greatest villains that the world
|
||
|
has ever seen. And they as much deserve to be hunted and killed (if
|
||
|
they cannot otherwise be got rid of) as any slave traders, robbers,
|
||
|
or pirates that ever lived.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>When these emperors and kings, so-called, have obtained their loans,
|
||
|
they proceed to hire and train immense numbers of professional
|
||
|
murderers, called soldiers, and employ them in shooting down all who
|
||
|
resist their demands for money. In fact, most of them keep large
|
||
|
bodies of these murderers constantly in their service, as their only
|
||
|
means of enforcing their extortions. There are now [1870], I think,
|
||
|
four or five millions of these professional murderers constantly
|
||
|
employed by the so-called sovereigns of Europe. The enslaved people
|
||
|
are, of course, forced to support and pay all these murderers, as
|
||
|
well as to submit to all the other extortions which these murderers
|
||
|
are employed to enforce.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>It is only in this way that most of the so-called governments of
|
||
|
Europe are maintained. These so-called governments are in reality
|
||
|
only great bands of robbers and murderers, organized, disciplined,
|
||
|
and constantly on the alert. And the so-called sovereigns, in these
|
||
|
different governments, are simply the heads, or chiefs, of different
|
||
|
bands of robbers and murderers. And these heads or chiefs are
|
||
|
dependent upon the lenders of blood-money for the means to carry on
|
||
|
their robberies and murders. They could not sustain themselves a
|
||
|
moment but for the loans made to them by these blood-money
|
||
|
loan-mongers. And their first care is to maintain their credit with
|
||
|
them; for they know their end is come, the instant their credit with
|
||
|
them fails. Consequently the first proceeds of their extortions are
|
||
|
scrupulously applied to the payment of the interest on their loans.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>In addition to paying the interest on their bonds, they perhaps
|
||
|
grant to the holders of them great monopolies in banking, like the
|
||
|
Banks of England, of France, and of Vienna; with the agreement that
|
||
|
these banks shall furnish money whenever, in sudden emergencies, it
|
||
|
may be necessary to shoot down more of their people. Perhaps also,
|
||
|
by means of tariffs on competing imports, they give great monopolies
|
||
|
to certain branches of industry, in which these lenders of
|
||
|
blood-money are engaged. They also, by unequal taxation, exempt
|
||
|
wholly or partially the property of these loan-mongers, and throw
|
||
|
corresponding burdens upon those who are too poor and weak to
|
||
|
resist.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Thus it is evident that all these men, who call themselves by the
|
||
|
high-sounding names of Emperors, Kings, Sovereigns, Monarchs, Most
|
||
|
Christian Majesties, Most Catholic Majesties, High Mightinesses,
|
||
|
Most Serene and Potent Princes, and the like, and who claim to rule
|
||
|
"by the grace of God," by "Divine Right" -- that is, by special
|
||
|
authority from Heaven -- are intrinsically not only the merest
|
||
|
miscreants and wretches, engaged solely in plundering, enslaving,
|
||
|
and murdering their fellow men, but that they are also the merest
|
||
|
hangers on, the servile, obsequious, fawning dependents and tools of
|
||
|
these blood-money loan-mongers, on whom they rely for the means to
|
||
|
carry on their crimes. These loan-mongers, like the Rothschilds,
|
||
|
laugh in their sleeves, and say to themselves: These despicable
|
||
|
creatures, who call themselves emperors, and kings, and majesties,
|
||
|
and most serene and potent princes; who profess to wear crowns, and
|
||
|
sit on thrones; who deck themselves with ribbons, and feathers, and
|
||
|
jewels; and surround themselves with hired flatterers and
|
||
|
lickspittles; and whom we suffer to strut around, and palm
|
||
|
themselves off, upon fools and slaves, as sovereigns and lawgivers
|
||
|
specially appointed by Almighty God; and to hold themselves out as
|
||
|
the sole fountains of honors, and dignities, and wealth, and power
|
||
|
-- all these miscreants and imposters know that we make them, and
|
||
|
use them; that in us they live, move, and have their being; that we
|
||
|
require them (as the price of their positions) to take upon
|
||
|
themselves all the labor, all the danger, and all the odium of all
|
||
|
the crimes they commit for our profit; and that we will unmake them,
|
||
|
strip them of their gewgaws, and send them out into the world as
|
||
|
beggars, or give them over to the vengeance of the people they have
|
||
|
enslaved, the moment they refuse to commit any crime we require of
|
||
|
them, or to pay over to us such share of the proceeds of their
|
||
|
robberies as we see fit to demand.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>XIX.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Now, what is true in Europe, is substantially true in this country.
|
||
|
The difference is the immaterial one, that, in this country, there
|
||
|
is no visible, permanent head, or chief, of these robbers and
|
||
|
murderers who call themselves "the government." That is to say,
|
||
|
there is no ONE MAN, who calls himself the state, or even emperor,
|
||
|
king, or sovereign; no one who claims that he and his children rule
|
||
|
"by the Grace of God," by "Divine Right," or by special appointment
|
||
|
from Heaven. There are only certain men, who call themselves
|
||
|
presidents, senators, and representatives, and claim to be the
|
||
|
authorized agents, FOR THE TIME BEING, OR FOR CERTAIN SHORT PERIODS,
|
||
|
OF ALL "the people of the United States"; but who can show no
|
||
|
credentials, or powers of attorney, or any other open, authentic
|
||
|
evidence that they are so; and who notoriously are not so; but are
|
||
|
really only the agents of a secret band of robbers and murderers,
|
||
|
whom they themselves do not know, and have no means of knowing,
|
||
|
individually; but who, they trust, will openly or secretly, when the
|
||
|
crisis comes, sustain them in all their usurpations and crimes.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>What is important to be noticed is, that these so-called presidents,
|
||
|
senators, and representatives, these pretended agents of all "the
|
||
|
people of the United States," the moment their exactions meet with
|
||
|
any formidable resistance from any portion of "the people"
|
||
|
themselves, are obliged, like their co-robbers and murderers in
|
||
|
Europe, to fly at once to the lenders of blood money, for the means
|
||
|
to sustain their power. And they borrow their money on the same
|
||
|
principle, and for the same purpose, viz., to be expended in
|
||
|
shooting down all those "people of the United States" -- their own
|
||
|
constituents and principals, as they profess to call them -- who
|
||
|
resist the robberies and enslavements which these borrowers of the
|
||
|
money are practising upon them. And they expect to repay the loans,
|
||
|
if at all, only from the proceeds of the future robberies, which
|
||
|
they anticipate it will be easy for them and their successors to
|
||
|
perpetrate through a long series of years, upon their pretended
|
||
|
principals, if they can but shoot down now some hundreds of
|
||
|
thousands of them, and thus strike terror into the rest.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Perhaps the facts were never made more evident, in any country on
|
||
|
the globe, than in our own, that these soulless blood-money
|
||
|
loan-mongers are the real rulers; that they rule from the most
|
||
|
sordid and mercenary motives; that the ostensible government, the
|
||
|
presidents, senators, and representatives, so called, are merely
|
||
|
their tools; and that no ideas of, or regard for, justice or liberty
|
||
|
had anything to do in inducing them to lend their money for the war
|
||
|
[i.e, the Civil War]. In proof of all this, look at the following
|
||
|
facts.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Nearly a hundred years ago we professed to have got rid of all that
|
||
|
religious superstition, inculcated by a servile and corrupt
|
||
|
priesthood in Europe, that rulers, so called, derived their
|
||
|
authority directly from Heaven; and that it was consequently a
|
||
|
religious duty on the part of the people to obey them. We professed
|
||
|
long ago to have learned that governments could rightfully exist
|
||
|
only by the free will, and on the voluntary support, of those who
|
||
|
might choose to sustain them. We all professed to have known long
|
||
|
ago, that the only legitimate objects of government were the
|
||
|
maintenance of liberty and justice equally for all. All this we had
|
||
|
professed for nearly a hundred years. And we professed to look with
|
||
|
pity and contempt upon those ignorant, superstitious, and enslaved
|
||
|
peoples of Europe, who were so easily kept in subjection by the
|
||
|
frauds and force of priests and kings.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Notwithstanding all this, that we had learned, and known, and
|
||
|
professed, for nearly a century, these lenders of blood money had,
|
||
|
for a long series of years previous to the war, been the willing
|
||
|
accomplices of the slave-holders in perverting the government from
|
||
|
the purposes of liberty and justice, to the greatest of crimes.
|
||
|
They had been such accomplices FOR A PURELY PECUNIARY CONSIDERATION,
|
||
|
to wit, a control of the markets in the South; in other words, the
|
||
|
privilege of holding the slave-holders themselves in industrial and
|
||
|
commercial subjection to the manufacturers and merchants of the
|
||
|
North (who afterwards furnished the money for the war). And these
|
||
|
Northern merchants and manufacturers, these lenders of blood-money,
|
||
|
were willing to continue to be the accomplices of the slave-holders
|
||
|
in the future, for the same pecuniary considerations. But the
|
||
|
slave-holders, either doubting the fidelity of their Northern
|
||
|
allies, or feeling themselves strong enough to keep their slaves in
|
||
|
subjection without Northern assistance, would no longer pay the
|
||
|
price which these Northern men demanded. And it was to enforce this
|
||
|
price in the future -- that is, to monopolize the Southern markets,
|
||
|
to maintain their industrial and commercial control over the South
|
||
|
-- that these Northern manufacturers and merchants lent some of the
|
||
|
profits of their former monopolies for the war, in order to secure
|
||
|
to themselves the same, or greater, monopolies in the future. These
|
||
|
-- and not any love of liberty or justice -- were the motives on
|
||
|
which the money for the war was lent by the North. In short, the
|
||
|
North said to the slave-holders: If you will not pay us our price
|
||
|
(give us control of your markets) for our assistance against your
|
||
|
slaves, we will secure the same price (keep control of your markets)
|
||
|
by helping your slaves against you, and using them as our tools for
|
||
|
maintaining dominion over you; for the control of your markets we
|
||
|
will have, whether the tools we use for that purpose be black or
|
||
|
white, and be the cost, in blood and money, what it may.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>On this principle, and from this motive, and not from any love of
|
||
|
liberty, or justice, the money was lent in enormous amounts, and at
|
||
|
enormous rates of interest. And it was only by means of these loans
|
||
|
that the objects of the war were accomplished.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>And now these lenders of blood-money demand their pay; and the
|
||
|
government, so called, becomes their tool, their servile, slavish,
|
||
|
villanous tool, to extort it from the labor of the enslaved people
|
||
|
both of the North and South. It is to be extorted by every form of
|
||
|
direct, and indirect, and unequal taxation. Not only the nominal
|
||
|
debt and interest -- enormous as the latter was -- are to be paid in
|
||
|
full; but these holders of the debt are to be paid still further --
|
||
|
and perhaps doubly, triply, or quadruply paid -- by such tariffs on
|
||
|
imports as will enable our home manufacturers to realize enormous
|
||
|
prices for their commodities; also by such monopolies in banking as
|
||
|
will enable them to keep control of, and thus enslave and plunder,
|
||
|
the industry and trade of the great body of the Northern people
|
||
|
themselves. In short, the industrial and commercial slavery of the
|
||
|
great body of the people, North and South, black and white, is the
|
||
|
price which these lenders of blood money demand, and insist upon,
|
||
|
and are determined to secure, in return for the money lent for the
|
||
|
war.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>This programme having been fully arranged and systematized, they put
|
||
|
their sword into the hands of the chief murderer of the war,
|
||
|
[undoubtedly a reference to General Grant, who had just become
|
||
|
president] and charge him to carry their scheme into effect. And
|
||
|
now he, speaking as their organ, says, "LET US HAVE PEACE."</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The meaning of this is: Submit quietly to all the robbery and
|
||
|
slavery we have arranged for you, and you can have "peace." But in
|
||
|
case you resist, the same lenders of blood-money, who furnished the
|
||
|
means to subdue the South, will furnish the means again to subdue
|
||
|
you.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>These are the terms on which alone this government, or, with few
|
||
|
exceptions, any other, ever gives "peace" to its people.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The whole affair, on the part of those who furnished the money, has
|
||
|
been, and now is, a deliberate scheme of robbery and murder; not
|
||
|
merely to monopolize the markets of the South, but also to
|
||
|
monopolize the currency, and thus control the industry and trade,
|
||
|
and thus plunder and enslave the laborers, of both North and South.
|
||
|
And Congress and the president are today the merest tools for these
|
||
|
purposes. They are obliged to be, for they know that their own
|
||
|
power, as rulers, so-called, is at an end, the moment their credit
|
||
|
with the blood-money loan-mongers fails. They are like a bankrupt
|
||
|
in the hands of an extortioner. They dare not say nay to any demand
|
||
|
made upon them. And to hide at once, if possible, both their
|
||
|
servility and crimes, they attempt to divert public attention, by
|
||
|
crying out that they have "Abolished Slavery!" That they have "Saved
|
||
|
the Country!" That they have "Preserved our Glorious Union!" and
|
||
|
that, in now paying the "National Debt," as they call it (as if the
|
||
|
people themselves, ALL OF THEM WHO ARE TO BE TAXED FOR ITS PAYMENT,
|
||
|
had really and voluntarily joined in contracting it), they are
|
||
|
simply "Maintaining the National Honor!"</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>By "maintaining the national honor," they mean simply that they
|
||
|
themselves, open robbers and murderers, assume to be the nation, and
|
||
|
will keep faith with those who lend them the money necessary to
|
||
|
enable them to crush the great body of the people under their feet;
|
||
|
and will faithfully appropriate, from the proceeds of their future
|
||
|
robberies and murders, enough to pay all their loans, principal and
|
||
|
interest.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The pretense that the "abolition of slavery" was either a motive or
|
||
|
justification for the war, is a fraud of the same character with
|
||
|
that of "maintaining the national honor." Who, but such usurpers,
|
||
|
robbers, and murderers as they, ever established slavery? Or what
|
||
|
government, except one resting upon the sword, like the one we now
|
||
|
have, was ever capable of maintaining slavery? And why did these
|
||
|
men abolish slavery? Not from any love of liberty in general -- not
|
||
|
as an act of justice to the black man himself, but only "as a war
|
||
|
measure," and because they wanted his assistance, and that of his
|
||
|
friends, in carrying on the war they had undertaken for maintaining
|
||
|
and intensifying that political, commercial, and industrial slavery,
|
||
|
to which they have subjected the great body of the people, both
|
||
|
black and white. And yet these imposters now cry out that they have
|
||
|
abolished the chattel slavery of the black man -- although that was
|
||
|
not the motive of the war -- as if they thought they could thereby
|
||
|
conceal, atone for, or justify that other slavery which they were
|
||
|
fighting to perpetuate, and to render more rigorous and inexorable
|
||
|
than it ever was before. There was no difference of principle --
|
||
|
but only of degree -- between the slavery they boast they have
|
||
|
abolished, and the slavery they were fighting to preserve; for all
|
||
|
restraints upon men's natural liberty, not necessary for the simple
|
||
|
maintenance of justice, are of the nature of slavery, and differ
|
||
|
from each other only in degree.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>If their object had really been to abolish slavery, or maintain
|
||
|
liberty or justice generally, they had only to say: All, whether
|
||
|
white or black, who want the protection of this government, shall
|
||
|
have it; and all who do not want it, will be left in peace, so long
|
||
|
as they leave us in peace. Had they said this, slavery would
|
||
|
necessarily have been abolished at once; the war would have been
|
||
|
saved; and a thousand times nobler union than we have ever had would
|
||
|
have been the result. It would have been a voluntary union of free
|
||
|
men; such a union as will one day exist among all men, the world
|
||
|
over, if the several nations, so called, shall ever get rid of the
|
||
|
usurpers, robbers, and murderers, called governments, that now
|
||
|
plunder, enslave, and destroy them.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Still another of the frauds of these men is, that they are now
|
||
|
establishing, and that the war was designed to establish, "a
|
||
|
government of consent." The only idea they have ever manifested as
|
||
|
to what is a government of consent, is this -- that it is one to
|
||
|
which everybody must consent, or be shot. This idea was the
|
||
|
dominant one on which the war was carried on; and it is the dominant
|
||
|
one, now that we have got what is called "peace."</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Their pretenses that they have "Saved the Country," and "Preserved
|
||
|
our Glorious Union," are frauds like all the rest of their
|
||
|
pretenses. By them they mean simply that they have subjugated, and
|
||
|
maintained their power over, an unwilling people. This they call
|
||
|
"Saving the Country"; as if an enslaved and subjugated people -- or
|
||
|
as if any people kept in subjection by the sword (as it is intended
|
||
|
that all of us shall be hereafter) -- could be said to have any
|
||
|
country. This, too, they call "Preserving our Glorious Union"; as
|
||
|
if there could be said to be any Union, glorious or inglorious, that
|
||
|
was not voluntary. Or as if there could be said to be any union
|
||
|
between masters and slaves; between those who conquer, and those who
|
||
|
are subjugated.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>All these cries of having "abolished slavery," of having "saved the
|
||
|
country," of having "preserved the union," of establishing "a
|
||
|
government of consent," and of "maintaining the national honor," are
|
||
|
all gross, shameless, transparent cheats -- so transparent that they
|
||
|
ought to deceive no one -- when uttered as justifications for the
|
||
|
war, or for the government that has suceeded the war, or for now
|
||
|
compelling the people to pay the cost of the war, or for compelling
|
||
|
anybody to support a government that he does not want.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>The lesson taught by all these facts is this: As long as mankind
|
||
|
continue to pay "national debts," so-called -- that is, so long as
|
||
|
they are such dupes and cowards as to pay for being cheated,
|
||
|
plundered, enslaved, and murdered -- so long there will be enough to
|
||
|
lend the money for those purposes; and with that money a plenty of
|
||
|
tools, called soldiers, can be hired to keep them in subjection.
|
||
|
But when they refuse any longer to pay for being thus cheated,
|
||
|
plundered, enslaved, and murdered, they will cease to have cheats,
|
||
|
and usurpers, and robbers, and murderers and blood-money
|
||
|
loan-mongers for masters.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>APPENDIX.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>Inasmuch as the Constitution was never signed, nor agreed to, by
|
||
|
anybody, as a contract, and therefore never bound anybody, and is
|
||
|
now binding upon nobody; and is, moreover, such an one as no people
|
||
|
can ever hereafter be expected to consent to, except as they may be
|
||
|
forced to do so at the point of the bayonet, it is perhaps of no
|
||
|
importance what its true legal meaning, as a contract, is.
|
||
|
Nevertheless, the writer thinks it proper to say that, in his
|
||
|
opinion, the Constitution is no such instrument as it has generally
|
||
|
been assumed to be; but that by false interpretations, and naked
|
||
|
usurpations, the government has been made in practice a very widely,
|
||
|
and almost wholly, different thing from what the Constitution itself
|
||
|
purports to authorize. He has heretofore written much, and could
|
||
|
write much more, to prove that such is the truth. But whether the
|
||
|
Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain
|
||
|
-- that it has either authorized such a government as we have had,
|
||
|
or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to
|
||
|
exist.</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<div>-----</div>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p>X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X</p>
|
||
|
|
||
|
<p> Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm)</p>
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|
||
|
<p> & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845
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||
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Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649
|
||
|
Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766
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||
|
realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043
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||
|
Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102</p>
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|
<p> Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives,
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arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality,
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insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS.</p>
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<p> Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are,
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where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother.</p>
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<p> "Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
|
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||
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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||
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</p></xml>
|