\ 
 
 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 FOUNDED ON THE 
 
 NATURAL AND INALIENABLE EIGHTS OF MAN. 
 
 AND CONTAINING 
 
 THE OUTLINES OF SUCH A GOVERNMENT AS 
 THE PATRIOT FATHERS CONTEMPLATED 
 AND FORMULATED IN THE DECLARA- 
 TION OF INDEPENDENCE, "WHEN 
 STRUGGLING FOR LIBERTY. 
 
 E. J. SCHELLHOUS, M. D. 
 
 " The true Kepublic Is not yet here. But the birth-struggle must soon 
 "begin. Already, with the hope of her, men's thoughts are stirring."— 
 Henrt George. 
 
 SAN FRANCISCO: 
 BACON & COMPANY, PRINTERS, 
 
 No. 508 CLAY Street. 
 1883.
 
 Copyright, 1883, 
 
 By E. J. SCHELLHOUS.
 
 o / 
 
 en 
 
 cm 
 
 ^ 
 
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 i:^. 
 
 PRESS NOTICES. 
 
 » 
 
 Permit me to say that I pronounce "The New Republic " 
 
 a superior work on the subject of wliich it treats, both in its 
 
 -- arrangements and the subject matter jiresented — Geo. T. 
 
 •«£ Elliot. 
 
 The work of Dr. Schellhous will rank with Henry 
 George's ''Progress and Poverty." * * * "The New 
 Republic " is a school-book for the people,— a popular educat- 
 or for the American voter,— the problems in which must be 
 understood before the New Republic which he foreshadows 
 can be an accomplished fact. — E. M. Dewev, in Tulare 
 County Journal. 
 
 I would advise all advocates of the liberation of man- 
 kind to read "The New Republic," by Dr. Schellhous, as he 
 is an honest expounder of Truth and Justice. — The Tocsin, 
 Dallas, Texas. 
 
 "The New Republic," Schelllious.— This is one of the 
 few works of reform writers of the last few years wliich can 
 be said to be at once forcible and scholarly. 
 
 28G115
 
 Many have been the former, and liave accomplished a 
 great work, as iron is beaten into rude shapes by hard blows; 
 but a few only have been sufficiently skilled to polish the 
 works which they had hammered out into really symmetri- 
 cal forms. 
 
 The author of "The New Republic" has done this.— The 
 SatKrdai/ Express, Chicago. 
 
 I pronounce " The New Republic" a masterly book, afar- 
 reaching work, pictured in plain, simple English. I shall 
 loan it to my friends to read, for I would that every man in 
 our fair country would read it; then we would surely see 
 better times. — W. D. Young. 
 
 The most I can do is to assert that no true reform library 
 will be complete without "The New Republic." Prolific 
 as California has been in ideas, the indisputable truths- 
 ideas— put forth in "The New Republic" are the peers of 
 the brightest and best. — Geo. C. Beecher. 
 
 "The New Republic " is received and reviewed. When 
 placed before the American people, they must be greatly 
 benefited by its teachings. I truly congratulate you on its 
 production. I think the book is opportune : is in the right 
 time and place to fill a much needed want in American poli- 
 tics. Its principles will be teachers when the hand that pen- 
 ned them is dust. — Anna D. Weaver. 
 
 I have not yet read thoroughly " Tlie New Republic"; 
 it has been loaned nearly all the time since its receipt. But
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
 those who have read it, and in whose judgment I have great 
 confidence, say that I need have no fears in recommending 
 it ; that it will do good wherever it goes.— Celia B. White- 
 head. 
 
 Your book to hand and read. I like it very much and 
 think it excellent. I think it equals Henry George's "Progress 
 and Poverty." I hope many may read it. * * « 
 Your chapter on Tariff is especially good, the best I have 
 ever seen on the question.— Hon. L. B. Keating. 
 
 "The New Republic" is anti-monopoly from beginning to 
 end, and will find little favor from politicians and monopo- 
 lists. The author attacks corporate power in all its hydra- 
 forms, nor leaves a single niche in our liberty temple on 
 which to place its feet. 
 
 Finance and Tariff are also subjects for the author's 
 trenchant pen. Nor does he handle them with gloved hands. 
 
 While the author tears down with vandal hands, he 
 unhesitatingly lays plans for another edifice, for he would 
 have a New Republic, phoenix like, to rise from the ashes of 
 the old.— S. H. Bond, in Tulare Times. 
 
 I want to say, " The New Republic " is by far the ablest 
 work I have read on the subject. It should be introduced 
 into our schools as a text book. It is truly multum in parvo, 
 and should be in the hands of every man and woman in the 
 land. * * It is admirably adapted to meet the views of the 
 average citizen, and all labor organizations should have it in 
 their library .—Samuel Sinnett in the lorva National Advocate.
 
 " The New Republic " is a most excellent work. It fills a 
 place in political reform not supplied by any other book.— H. 
 
 A. COFFEEN. 
 
 Let me say that your work is taking as I have seen no 
 other effort in this direction. My reform associates declare 
 that the nltimatiim of reform is therewith presented, and that 
 your effort has resulted in reducing the whole question at is- 
 sue to an exact scientific base that must serve as a competent 
 guide in the reform movement for the future. — L. A. Fisher. 
 
 Mnch that the author of "The New Republic" says in 
 part cannot be controverted, it must be believed. — Daily lie- 
 port, San Francisco. 
 
 Of Dr. Schellhous, Helen "Wilmans, editor of the Wom- 
 an's World department of The Saturday Express, saya : "I 
 know him well. He is a man of deep learning and scholarly 
 attainments. I am pleased to know that he has written a 
 work of the kind. It could not be other than valuable, com- 
 ing from his pen." 
 
 We have an unlimited conviction that Dr. Schellhous ad- 
 vocates a system of Truth that the world needs, and must 
 have, in order to prevent its relapse into the old-time barba- 
 rism of selfishness and tyranny. — Tulare Times.
 
 OONTEj^TS 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 To THE Reader 5 
 
 The Presentment 11 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. Definitions 15 
 
 n. Outlines of the New Republic 25 
 
 in. A Brief Review of the Struggle for 
 
 Liberty 33 
 
 rV. History of the Federal Constitution, 
 AND AN Account of the Leading Men 
 WHO Advocated and who Opposed It 39 
 V. The Articles of Confederation and the 
 
 Federal Constitution 62 
 
 VI. History of Political Parties in the 
 
 United States, and the Evtls of Par- 
 ty Spirit 77 
 
 VII. Review of our Judiciary System 91 
 
 VUl. Stock Operations, " Rings," and ** Cor- 
 ners " 113 
 
 IX. Natural Rights Considered. — Land 
 
 Tenures 125 
 
 X. Natural Rights Considered (Contin- 
 ued). —Finance 133 
 
 XI. Natural Rights Considered (Contin- 
 ued).— Banking System. 151
 
 IV CONTENTS. 
 
 XII. Natural Rights Considered (Contin- 
 ued). — Transportation 159 
 
 XIII. Natural Rights Considered (ContIxV- 
 
 xted). — Communication 168 
 
 XIV. Natural Rights Considered (Conclud- 
 
 ed). — Education 176 
 
 XV. Labor and Capital 195 
 
 XVI. Tariff 217 
 
 XVII. Corporations 241 
 
 XVIII. Qualification for Citizenship 268 
 
 XIX. Nature and Uses of Government 280 
 
 XX. Difficulties Considered 304 
 
 XXI. Summary 313 
 
 Synopsis of the New Republic ^ 327
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 It may seem like unwarrantable presumption 
 for a single individual to put forth his efforts to 
 restore to the people their rights by effecting 
 the requisite changes in our government. If I 
 presumed upon my own power or personal influ- 
 ence, such presumption would not only be un- 
 warrantable, but ridiculous. 
 
 My appeal is to you in a common cause ; it is 
 to your sense of right, your love of justice ; it is 
 in behalf of the innocent, helpless victims to the 
 overpowering greed of corporate rapacity ; it is 
 to that just and laudable pride that comes from 
 self-respect and claim to the dignity of true man- 
 hood and womanhood. 
 
 I appeal to your sense of duty, that ever- 
 present but often feeble voice that sjDcaks to all, 
 that our destiny and happiness are inseparably 
 connected with others ; that we can help ourselves 
 only as we help others. 
 
 I wish to remind you that our interests are
 
 b TO THE READER. 
 
 one ; of the power of unity ; of the necessity of 
 unanhnity of thought and feeling and the concert 
 of action. 
 
 I wish to remind you of the tactics of our 
 oppressors, whom we must regard as enemies, 
 in keeping the people distracted, by exciting 
 mutual hatred, and arraying faction against 
 faction and interest against Interest, and thus 
 secure an easy victory. Presuming upon their 
 superiority, they take government matters in 
 their own hands, furnish candidates committed 
 to their interests for you to elect, and claim that 
 the best must rule. This is an insult that de- 
 serves the most Indignant contempt. 
 
 The work here presented for your considera- 
 tion is radical — it goes to the root of the matter. 
 Those who live upon j'our toil would make the 
 science of government complicated, intricate, ab- 
 struse ; they would fain convince you that it 
 is beyond your capacity to understand. The 
 weakest and most contemptible fear is that 
 which arises from ignorance. Confront any one 
 with a problem of which he is profoundly ig- 
 norant, and conviftce him that his welfare lies in 
 its solution, and two things will result : unbound- 
 ed confidence and respect for the one who he 
 thinks can solve the problem, and a feeling of 
 utter dependence on him. It Is for you to be
 
 TO THE READER. I 
 
 able to solve the problems of free government ; 
 then self-respect and self-confidence will secure 
 your independence. 
 
 They would have you leave the business for 
 them to manage. They would have you accept 
 as authority the accumulation of past ages 
 derived from monarchical countries for them to 
 interpret and apply, which is virtually saying : 
 "You produce the wealth : that is your business ; 
 we will enjoy it : that is our privilege. We will 
 give you just enough of it to live and work. 
 That will secure two things : first, it will enrich 
 us ; and second, it will keep you so busy in earn- 
 ing your share, that you will not have time, 
 means, nor opportunity to study these intricate 
 questions that require a lifetime of research to 
 understand." And soon, as they know, you will 
 feel no disposition to study them. Unremitting 
 and constant contact with hard physical force 
 hardens the heart as well as the hands, and dulls 
 the intellect as well as deadens the sentiments. 
 Thus the producers of wealth — those who expend 
 their energies, Avaste their lives, and blunt all tho 
 finer and nobler attributes of human character to 
 create the millionaires' wealth — are regarded as 
 the rabble, mud-sills, or, in their more polite 
 language, the lower classes. 
 
 They would entice you into the mazes and
 
 8 TO THE READER. 
 
 labyrinths of "Political Economy " and "Juris- 
 prudence." as expounded by some " great " man, 
 and awe you into submissive silence by inform- 
 ing you that none but "great men" and pro- 
 found statesmen can understand these wonderful 
 sciences — the accumulation of the wisdom of 
 ages. 
 
 These, I say, are their tactics. We are bound 
 and entangled and mystified ; they have woven a 
 network of sophistries around us, and point to 
 our inability to comprehend them, thus holding 
 us in perpetual bondage. I do not propose to 
 solve these mysteries : they cannot do it them- 
 selves ; but I propose to lay them aside as im- 
 practicable ; to ignore these theories and specu- 
 lations. However truthful and a2:>plicable they 
 may have been or may be to monarchical gov- 
 ernments, they are foreign to a republican gov- 
 ernment, and therefore useless to us. In proof 
 of this, I present facts and conditions as the legit- 
 imate outcome of these theories in this volume 
 — of usurped power, of untold wealth in few 
 hands, of an impoverished people, of the rule of 
 avarice, of despotic cruelty, of political chicanery, 
 of corruption in high places and poverty in low 
 places, of insolent arrogance on the one hand 
 and servile submission on the other ; — these are 
 the fruits of corporate conspiracy to rob and
 
 TO THE READER. y 
 
 plunder in a legal way ; for it Is a fact of 
 alarming sio;nificance that there is nothino; clone 
 or being done, however damaging to the people's 
 interest and fatal to republican government, hut 
 what is in strict accordance with the constitution 
 \ind laws of the land. 
 \ I have shown that the principles and processes 
 of republican government are simple and com- 
 prehensible, as all great truths and principles are 
 when stripped of the verbiage that misleads and 
 mystifies. Otherwise republican government is 
 a myth, an impracticable dream, and the sooner 
 we know it the better. 
 
 Herbert Spencer is a profound thinker. He 
 stands confessedly at the head of modern scien- 
 tists. Not long since, he spent several months in 
 the United States, and on the eve of his depart- 
 ure for England he gave liis opinions of Ameri- 
 can institutions. He said : " The republican form 
 of government is the highest form of govern- 
 ment, but because of this, it requires the highest 
 type of human nature — a type nowhere at present 
 existing. We have not grown up to it, nor have 
 
 you." 
 
 There is deep significance in these words. 
 
 Let us profit by them. Let us have not only the 
 
 intelligence to perceive the cause of our political 
 
 downfall, but have the courage to assail it witli 
 
 1*
 
 10 TO THE READER. 
 
 destructive weapons. The revolution here pro- 
 posed is not a bloody conquest, but a change 
 from bad to good, from vice to virtue, from slav- 
 ery to liberty, from despotism to freedom. Let 
 the ballot in the hands of intelligence, prompted 
 by the love of justice and guided by wisdom, be 
 the nilent but potent weapon for its accomplish- 
 ment. I have shown that all depends on the 
 qualification of the ballot-holder. It is for the 
 people to use and show to the world that self- 
 government is not only possible, but practicable. 
 
 E. J. S.
 
 \ 
 
 THE peesentme:nt. 
 
 " Ye build! ye build, but ye enter not in, 
 Like the tribes whom the desert devoured in their sin; 
 From the land of promise ye fade and die 
 Ere it gleams forth on your wearied eye." 
 
 " Who would be free, 
 Themselves must strike the blow." 
 
 To THE People of the United States. 
 
 The time has now come when all true men 
 and women can move forward in one unbroken 
 line, vindicating and protecting their natural 
 rio-hts as set forth in the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. Your interests are indentical, your 
 opportunities for action are free and ample, and 
 your duties are plain and imperative. 
 
 A confederation of corporations has usurped 
 the sovereign functions of this government, and 
 exercises them for its sole use and benefit, 
 thereby resolving it into an oligarchy. 
 
 The many are made to serve the few. In- 
 dustry is made to enrich idleness. Capital 
 created by hibor has gained complete control 
 over it, and holds it in its relentless grasp.
 
 12 THE PRESENTMENT. 
 
 We declare that tlic principles upon which 
 this o-overnment was founded have been ignored 
 and superseded by a system whose essential fea- 
 tures are borrowed from the British Govern- 
 ment, 
 
 Instead of equality, Ave have class distinctions 
 founded on wealth. 
 
 Instead of a medium of circulation to carry on 
 the industries of the country by equal exchange 
 and equitable distribution, we have a limited cur- 
 rency controlled by corporations for their special 
 benefit. 
 
 Instead of a system of land tenure that would 
 secure homes for the people, we have a land 
 monopoly already grown to an alarming extent, 
 and still increaslno;. 
 
 Instead of fair and equitable rates for trans- 
 portation and travel, we have ruinous discrimina- 
 tions, and extortion beyond all reason, justice, or 
 precedent. 
 
 Instead of labor controlling its own interests, 
 and regulating its relations to capital, i't is, 
 by aggressive avarice and relentless tyranny, 
 trampled upon, the rights of laboring men and 
 women ignored, and they are being reduced to 
 hopeless poverty and servile dependence ujjon it. 
 Instead of honest representation and faithful 
 public service, we have a system of political
 
 THE PRESENTMENT. 13 
 
 machinery that manipulates nominating conven- 
 tions, secures the election of their candidates, 
 and by lobbying and bribery controls the legis- 
 lative, executive, and judicial departments of the 
 government. 
 
 As a consequence of these unjust measures 
 and usurped powers, the vast majority of the 
 people are made to pay tribute to the few, 
 whereby immense wealth accumulates in their 
 hands, by which class distinctions are built up, 
 and aristocracies are founded at the cost of the 
 wealth producer. 
 
 There is no good reason why any should be 
 compelled to long and monotonous labor ; to toil 
 without recompense, save that of a bare subsist- 
 ence, a condition that deadens stimulus, and ban- 
 ishes all expectation and aspiration for anything 
 higher than to be the sons and daughters of in- 
 cessant toil. 
 
 To liberate yourselves from the tyranny of 
 capital, to break the bonds that enslave you, to 
 strike off the fetters imposed by the bandit-chiefs 
 of the Stock and Grain Exchange, and the rob- 
 ber-leaders who organize parties into machines, 
 is your work. 
 
 Let us demand Justice that secures Equality ; 
 Equality that secures Liberty; Liberty that se- 
 cures Happiness ; for Happiness is the end and 
 aim of human existence.
 
 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DEFINITIONS. 
 
 *• 'Tis coming up tbe steeps of time, 
 
 And this old world is growing brighter ; 
 We yet may see its dawn sublime, 
 For high hopes make the heart throb lighter." 
 
 Government in the sense of political science 
 is an agreement, expressed or implied, to con- 
 form to certain regulations by a body of people 
 having common interests and a common country. 
 It is based on man's social nature and mutual 
 wants ; and has for its object the regulation and 
 protection of its citizens in the full and free ex- 
 ercise of their natural rights, privileges, and op- 
 portunities. 
 
 Some uniformity and concert of action, some 
 common sentiment finding expression in law and 
 the various institutions of a country, are indispen- 
 sable to the very existence of society. This
 
 16 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 truth has given rise to the adage, "Bad govern- 
 jnent is better than no government." 
 
 Government, being a national association 
 founded on mutual interests and mutual dejDend- 
 encies — an organized system of procedure — and 
 necessary to secure these interests and the bene- 
 fits of co-operation in the pursuit of mutual 
 advantages, requires legislative and executive 
 powers. 
 
 When these powers are exercised in the inter- 
 est of a few, who, by the force of custom and 
 false education, hold the many in subjection, such 
 government is Despotism ; when they are exer- 
 cised by the people through an organized system 
 of representation, such government is a Rejjuhlic. 
 
 These two modes of government constitute the 
 base upon which all the various forms of govern- 
 ment amono; mankind are founded. The one is 
 based upon assumed, usurped, vested power ; the 
 other upon natural rights. The former demands 
 submission to superiors, the latter obedience to 
 Avell-regulated institutions ; the one for the ag- 
 grandizement of the few, the other embraces 
 the good of all. 
 
 (1) A republican government is founded 
 upon the natural rights of the people, and has 
 for its sole object the regulation of those rights 
 and the protection of the people in their full and 
 free exercise.
 
 DEFINITIONS. 17 
 
 (2) Human rights are based upon the necessi- 
 ties and requirements of life, and consist in a 
 natural claim to the means of obtaining them ; 
 the essential conditions of which are personal 
 liberty, physical sustenance, and mental free- 
 dom. 
 
 (3) As life is of divine origin, so are the rights 
 necessary to maintain it: and those means by 
 which all its purposes ai'C accomplished are 
 equally divine. These rights are inalienable, 
 and as sacred as life itself, because their full and 
 free exercise is essential to the accomplishment 
 of life's purposes. 
 
 (4) The right to live carries with it the right 
 of personal liberty, the means of subsistence, 
 and the development and culture of all the intel- 
 lectual, moral, esthetic, and spiritual powers and 
 capabilities of the individual ; and as all have 
 the right equally to live, so all have the right 
 equally to its prerogatives, means, and possibili- 
 ties. 
 
 (5) Since the ca^jaclty to enjoy liberty, to ac- 
 quire the means of subsistence, and the natural 
 capacity for mental development and spiritual cul- 
 ture are within certain limits, with the free exercise 
 of these natural rights, the status of the individ- 
 ual in such conditions, physically. Intellectually, 
 morally, and spiritually, would correspond with
 
 18 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 such capacity ; and equality of conditions within 
 these limits would be established in a government 
 founded on natural rights. In other words, 
 the status of equality would be commensurate 
 with the natural capacity of the people in the 
 full and free enjoyment of such rights. As the 
 limits in physical stature, strength, and endur- 
 ance are comparatively narrow, with like de- 
 velopment and culture, all the mental attributes 
 would be within the same narrow limits, and 
 NATURAL EQUALITY would be the rcsult. 
 
 The struo:o;les and miseries of life have arisen 
 chiefly from the denial of these natural rights ; 
 and the usurpation of powers founded on the 
 idea of a divine right to rule still prevails in all 
 civilized countnes, under the name of vested 
 RIGHTS. Whenever natural rights have as- 
 serted their claims, " vested rights," holding the 
 supremacy, have overpowered them, and thus 
 kept mankind in submission. 
 
 Contending usurpers have involved nations in 
 war, either to support dynasties or for conquest ; 
 and the wealth produced by the toiling millions 
 has been squandered to satisfy the demands of 
 ambitions pomp, luxury, and avarice. These are 
 the fruits of despotism. 
 
 On the other hand, under a government that 
 secures the exercise and enjoyment of natural
 
 DEFINITIOXS. 19 
 
 rights, each one would hokl and enjoy the wealth 
 he produces. The result would be the prosper- 
 ity, advancement, and happiness of the people ; 
 whereas, the result of " vested rights," exercised 
 by the few, is war, with all its attendant evils, the 
 burdens of which are borne by the people, but 
 the glory, wealth, and power go to the few ; in- 
 cessant toil, poverty, and slavery of the many, 
 and idleness, luxury, and dominion to the few. 
 
 Thus it is seen that usurped powers vested in 
 governments, formulated in constitutions, com- 
 manding obedience by the authority of law, and 
 exercised for the benefit of the usurpers, must 
 antagonize natural rights, and the results are 
 inordinate wealth, tyranny, and oppression on 
 the one hand ; and poverty, debt, ignorance, 
 crime, degradation, and misery on the other. 
 
 In our country, all vested powers, derived 
 from the idea of a divine right to rule, have been 
 proscribed in the Federal Constitution, but have 
 been more than supplied by powers vested in 
 corporations for private enterprise, under the 
 authority granted by law, which have usurped 
 and now exercise the sovereign functions of gov- 
 ernment for their sole use and benefit, and by 
 their power dictate all the affairs of government 
 and control all its sources of wealth. A govern- 
 ment thus based upon assumed vested rights can
 
 20 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 never be " a government of the people, for tlie 
 people, by the people." Power emanating from 
 the people, and delegated to their representatives 
 for exercise, must remain under the people's con- 
 trol and subject to their will. 
 
 " Government is nothing more than a national 
 association, and the object of this association is 
 protection, as well individually as collectively. 
 Every man wishes to pursue his occupation and to 
 enjoy the fruits of his labors and the produce of his 
 px'operLy in peace and safety, and with the least 
 possible expense. When these things are accom- 
 plished, all the objects for which government ought 
 to be established are answered." — Paine's Mights 
 of Man. 
 
 There is but one general principle that distin- 
 guishes freedom from slavery, which is, that all 
 vested power is to the people a species of slavery, 
 the degree of which corresponds with that of the 
 power vested and exercised ; and delegated pow- 
 er truly and faithfully exercised in a government 
 is freedom within the scope of popular govern- 
 ment. The power is in the people, not in their 
 public servants ; in those who pay, and not in 
 those who are paid. 
 
 The prevalent idea is that the government is 
 the power and the people are subject to it ; 
 whereas, the true idea is that the people are sov- 
 ereign, and that the government is the prescribed
 
 DEFINITIONS. 21 
 
 means for regulating their rights and protecting 
 them in the exercise of them, and their official 
 agents are subject to their control. A simple 
 application of this idea will determine whether 
 our government is a republic or not. If the 
 greatest good is secured to the greatest number ; 
 if the subdivision of land is so regulated and 
 occupancy so protected that all citizens who desire 
 it may have homes upon it ; if all who produce 
 wealth can hold and enjoy it; if transportation, 
 travel, and communication for intelligence are se- 
 cured at the cost of service ; if in elections the 
 voice of the people is fairly expressed; if the 
 burden of revenue is borne by all according to 
 their ability to pay ; if labor and capital are 
 united in one common interest ; if social and 
 educational institutions secure to the people the 
 greatest blessings they are capable of giving — 
 then we have a republican government. 
 
 Such was the government contemplated a 
 hundred years ago by the patriots. Inspired by 
 the love of liberty and the divine heritage of 
 human rights, they struggled with almost super- 
 human efforts, endured indescribable hardships, 
 and made heroic sacrifices to gain for themselves 
 and transmit to posterity the highest and noblest 
 of earthly blessings — liberty, equality, fraternity, 
 justice, secured by popular government.
 
 22 THE NEW llEPUBLIC. 
 
 But before such government could be fully 
 formulated and set in operation, and during its 
 brief existence, by the intrigues and machina- 
 tions of the enemies of free government, its 
 aims were diverted and its purposes defeated. 
 
 To show how far popular rights have been 
 usurped, the following instance is given : In the 
 last Congress an amendment to the post-office 
 bill was offered, which provided, first, for an 
 amendment to the charters of the Union and 
 Central Pacific railroads ; and second, for the 
 reduction of compensation for carrying the 
 mails on old-subsidy-and-land-grant railroads to 
 fifty per cent of the rate paid on roads built by 
 private capital. The arguments in support of 
 the amendment were, that as the government 
 had virtually built these roads by donating to 
 corporations land and subsidy bonds amply suf- 
 ficient in amount to cover all costs of construc- 
 tion and equipments, it had the I'ight to de- 
 mand the transportation of the mails over them 
 at cost. 
 
 But the argus eyes of corporations saw that it 
 would never do to acknowledge the right or 
 power of the government to lay its finger upon 
 a corporate prerogative, no matter how justly 
 or how much the public good demanded it; so 
 through its Democratic mouth-piece, Abi*am S.
 
 DEFINITIONS. 23 
 
 Hewitt (son-in-law of the venerable Peter 
 Cooper), in a tone of holy horror it wanted to 
 know " if the House felt prepared to begin the 
 work of confiscating private property, which, 
 when once approved by a vote of the House, 
 would proceed with fearful strides until it ended 
 in a logical result — communism." 
 
 Through its Republican organ, Mr. Caswell, it 
 was more defiant, and declared that the amend- 
 ment would be inoperative, as it was a blow at 
 the vested rights of those corporations, " ivhich 
 could not he taken away or invaded hy Congreisy 
 
 Any regulation for the reduction of rates for 
 transportation on those roads which were virtu- 
 ally built by the people is declared " confisca- 
 tion of private property," resulting in " commun- 
 ism." 
 
 This from the Democratic side of corporate 
 power; on the Republican side, "a blow at the 
 vested rights of corporations, which could not 
 be taken away or invaded by Congress " ! 
 
 The definitions here presented show the ne- 
 cessity and importance of the people in taking 
 immediate and determined action in the estab- 
 lishment of a government in which they will 
 realize the blessings that justice, equality, and 
 liberty give. The time must be near at hand, 
 when the people, whose rights have been denied
 
 24 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 and their powers usurped by a confederation of 
 corporations, will arise in their might, arouse 
 their slumbering energies, and resolve that to 
 secure the natural and inalienable rights they 
 will demand such a government as will secure 
 them; "laying its foundations on such principles 
 and organizing its powers in such form as to them 
 shall seem most likely to effect their safety and 
 
 happiness Where a long train of abuses 
 
 and usurpations, having invariably the same ob- 
 ject, evinces a design to reduce them to absolute 
 despotism, it is their right, it is their diity^ to throw 
 off such government, and provide new guards for 
 their future safety." This right, this duty, is as 
 sacred and binding now as it was a hundred 
 years ago 
 
 The issues now involved are essentially the 
 same ; we have, however, this advantage : the 
 foundation which they established, the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and the ballot, with which 
 we may regain our liberties. The foundation is 
 acknowledged by all, and the ballot is in the 
 hands of enough to express the intelligence and 
 enforce the will of the people, which constitute 
 the power of the government. It only remains 
 to test that intelligence and moral force of the 
 people's will, for there is no obstacle that intelli- 
 gence and moral power cannot overcome.
 
 OUTLINES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OUTLINES OF THE NEW RErUBLIC. 
 
 " What constitute a state? 
 
 Men, liigh-miuded ineu, 
 With powers as far above dull brUtes endued, 
 
 In forest, brake, or den, 
 As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude ; 
 
 Men who their duties know. 
 But know their rights, and knowing dare maintain; 
 
 Prevent the long-aimed blow, 
 And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain ; — 
 
 These constitute a state." 
 
 A GOVERNMENT founded on the natural rights 
 of the people must have a system by which their 
 will can be fully and fairly expressed. 
 
 This requires political jurisdictions of two 
 kinds ; for organizations, like individuals, must 
 have prescribed limits. First, primary, in which 
 the people have direct and personal control over 
 their local affairs. By this local government, 
 the construction of roads, bridges, and the 
 erection of buildings for public use, as schools, 
 lyceums, and for public entertainment, conduct- 
 incr educational matters and all domestic affairs, 
 are under the direct control of the people. The 
 administration of justice in all civil and criminal 
 matters, the abatement of nuisances and all other 
 2
 
 26 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 concerns of a local character, arc managed 
 directly by the people in their local jurisdictions. 
 
 Second, representative, because of the extent 
 of country and population, and the common in- 
 terests arising from the combinations of local 
 governments, the powers are delegated to agents 
 who represent the people in their interests. 
 
 Sovereign control is to be exercised in these 
 jurisdictions in matters pertaining to them respect- 
 ively : in local, by the people direct ; in the rep- 
 resentative, by delegates elected by the people. 
 
 The primary jurisdictions extend to convenient 
 limits, and unite to form county jurisdictions 
 whose interests will be served by representatives. 
 This is the first representative jurisdiction. 
 
 Another, embracing the State, also represented 
 by delegates elected by the people, would be the 
 second. This body of delegates will have 
 charsre of all the interests of the State, and tha 
 regulation of all affairs in which the people of 
 the State have a common interest. 
 
 The highest representative jurisdiction will 
 embrace the whole country, and the delegates 
 for It will be elected by the people of the re- 
 spective States, and their powers and duties will 
 embrace all tlie interests of the people in the 
 capacity of a General Government. 
 
 Each of these jurisdictions will exercise a
 
 OUTLINES OF THE NEW ItEPUBLIC. 27 
 
 separate and inclepeudeiit sovereignty. Sover- 
 eignty pertains to vmity, and each unit has sover- 
 eignty over its own interests. In all that be- 
 longs to a primary jurisdiction, its sovereignty is 
 distinct and complete, and does not conflict with 
 any other. So of a county, a state, or the 
 nation. 
 
 The sovereign powers of the nation will be ex- 
 ercised by a legislative and executive department, 
 which will be prescribed by a constitution, which 
 will also contain provisions for other offices in 
 the government, and for tlie election of officers, 
 prescribing their duties and relations to their 
 constituents. 
 
 The state governments will be constructed on 
 like principles, with sovereign powers co-exten- 
 sive with their respective jurisdictions. 
 
 The county governments will be merely ad- 
 ministrative, and their sovereign powers will be 
 commensurate with their respective jurisdictions. 
 
 Primary jurisdictions will regulate all local 
 affairs within the limits of the state and national 
 government. 
 
 Thus a scheme of government simple in its con- 
 struction and easy of comprehension will secure 
 all the purposes for which popular government 
 is instituted, originating directly from the peo- 
 ple and under their absolute control ; the powers
 
 28 THE NEAV KErUBLIC. 
 
 delegated will return to the peo])le at the expira- 
 tion of the term of office. 
 
 Having outlined the general system of repub- 
 lican government, the most important subjects 
 for consideration are the qualifications of citizens 
 and the modes of election. The character of a 
 government is that of the people composing it. 
 If they have no true conception of just govern- 
 ment, no just government can exist. The pow- 
 ers of government arc inherent in the people, 
 and for the purpose of exercise, are intrusted or 
 delegated to some of their number. If these 
 powers are so conferred as to be controlled by 
 the delegates and beyond control or recall by 
 the people, republican government ceases and is 
 changed to despotism. 
 
 The first qualification of a citizen is a willing- 
 ness to concede to others all that he demands for 
 himself. This implies justice and equality, with- 
 out which republican government cannot exist. 
 
 The second qualification for citizenship is a 
 disposition and determination, at all times and in 
 all places, to support the rule of the majority, 
 when fairly and properly expressed. This is the 
 authority of government. 
 
 The third qualification is intelligence and 
 moral appreciation. A clear comprehension of 
 the principles of government and its purposes.
 
 OUTLINES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 29 
 
 and the tluties of the citizen, are indispensable. 
 This is the pov^er of the government. 
 
 The fourth qualification embraces those attri- 
 butes that fit the individual for the social duties 
 of life, for government is a national association. 
 These constitute the benefits of government, for 
 it is by it that they are enabled to become gen- 
 eral. 
 
 These qualifications are required of all, regard- 
 less of sex. The rights of women are equal with 
 those of men. Since government is founded on 
 rights, it becomes as necessary to one sex as to 
 the other ; for the question of sex does not in- 
 volve that of rights. 
 
 The power for good is the love of those attri- 
 butes that secure it, applied by the guidance of 
 wisdom. This power is all-sufficient for man's 
 purposes. It will overthrow despotism and cor- 
 ruption ; it will emancipate the people from 
 ignorance, poverty, crime, and misery. It will 
 bring to realization the dreams of the philoso- 
 pher and the hopes of the humanitarian. 
 
 It is attainable, not by conquest, but by the 
 exercise of those attributes that constitute the 
 true citizen, through the instrumentality of the 
 ballot. 
 
 It comes not with the sound of the trumpet 
 and the clash of arms, but by the gentle and
 
 30 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 peaceful exercise of thought. It is ours when 
 we command it, without cost or sacrifice, and of 
 more value than wealth and pomp and dominion 
 combined. Justice is its basis, equality its con- 
 dition, and liberty, peace, and prosperity its bless- 
 ings. 
 
 All it asks is the liberty of appearing ; all it 
 needs is the appreciation of the people. But so 
 deeply rooted are the existing systems of the 
 governments of the world, and so strongly have 
 tyranny, the reverence for antiquity, and the slav- 
 ery of fear wrought upon men, that it is difficult to 
 overcome their influence. To eradicate error or 
 remove prejudice is more difficult than to instill 
 truth and inspire confidence in receptive minds. 
 To realize this truth is the first step in this great 
 work, and no greater or more important work 
 can engage the mind and labor of man. 
 
 Having outlined the general system of repub- 
 lican government and the qualifications of its 
 citizens, it is important to consider a just method 
 of election. Tlie voice of the people must be 
 fairly and honestly expressed. In order to do 
 this, the representatives must be elected by" the 
 people in their respective jurisdictions, without 
 regard to lines of subdivision ; that is to say, 
 all the officers of a county must be voted for 
 without respect to district lines, those of a state
 
 OUTLINES OF THE NEW REPUBLIC. 31 
 
 regardless of county lines, and those of the na- 
 tion irrespective of state lines. 
 
 One month before the final election, let there 
 be held a primary election, Avith all the binding 
 force and safeguards that the law can give. 
 Let each voter express his or her choice for a 
 candidate for office freely ; and let there be as 
 many candidates as the people desire to vote for. 
 When these votes have been officially canvassed 
 and reported, let all candidates be dropped ex- 
 cept those having the highest number of votes 
 aggregating a majority of the party voting for 
 them. At the final election, each party will 
 unite on one or more candidates who will be the 
 choice of the majority of his party. 
 
 Where a number of officers of the same kind 
 are to be elected, as supervisors, commissioners, 
 and legislators, let the number of votes in the 
 jurisdiction be divided by the number of officers 
 to be elected, and the quotient be termed a 
 quota. When a candidate receives a quota of 
 votes, let him be declared elected. Then each 
 party will concentrate its whole force on as many 
 candidates as it can elect, for more than that 
 would defeat its candidates. Thus each party 
 would have a proportional representation. 
 
 With a government thus founded, constructed, 
 and represented, the people of the United States
 
 32 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 would be the most j)owerful, pi-osperous, and 
 happy nation on the globe, rcquirhig neither 
 strife nor blood to attain such conditions. 
 
 One hundred years of experience, with tlie aid 
 of history and the present condition of existing 
 nations, ought to be a sufficient guide to that 
 happy consummation. 
 
 Wisdom, justice, and humanity dictate it; ad- 
 vancing civilization requires it ; and an enslaved, 
 robbed, and impoverished people demand it. To 
 break this thralldom and maintain popular free- 
 dom is the first and most important duty, and the 
 highest privilege of this oppressed, impoverished, 
 and enslaved people. 
 
 Let all who think, who love liberty, justice, 
 and humanity, resolve to accomplish this great 
 work ; and the toiling millions, struggling in 
 their poverty and now sinking into pauperism, 
 with grateful voices will bless tlie workers ; com- 
 ing generations will sing their praises, and the 
 glory of a moral heroism far surpassing any dis- 
 played on the field of battle will give worth and 
 splendor to the names of those who did it.
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A BRIEF RE\aEW OF THE STRUGGLE FOR 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 "The man that is not moved at what he reads, 
 That takes not fire at their heroic deeds, 
 Unworthy of the blessings of the brave, 
 Is base in kind, and born to be a slave." 
 
 » 
 
 The love of liberty is inherent in every sen- 
 tient being. The condition of liberty is essential 
 in the accomplishment of life's purposes. In the 
 wilds of the new continent, and yielding to the 
 impulse of freedom, the colonists were not slow 
 in developing its spirit and enjoying^he sweets 
 of unrestrained activity. But the tyranny .that 
 drove them from their native land followed them 
 to their new homes, and with insatiable lust 
 sought to replace its shackles upon them. For 
 more than a hundred and fifty years this struggle 
 went on. Inspired only by avarice and the love 
 of dominion. Great Britain resorted to every 
 means for her own aggrandizement at the expense 
 of the colonists. And yet the colonists main- 
 tained a loyalty to the mother government with 
 wonderful pertinacity. But the accumulation of 
 wrongs proved too much for even such loyalty. 
 
 2*
 
 34 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 4 
 
 The colonies were made a source of immense 
 revenue to the mother country, and the struggle 
 to throw off British tyranny was as intense and 
 determined as the spirit of the colonists had been 
 patient and Indulgent ; and the long contest ended 
 in the acknowledgment of the independence of 
 the United States by Great Britain in 1783. 
 
 It was not until 1754 that any effort was made 
 to confederate the colonies for mutual defense. 
 In that year, the first movement for a confedera- 
 tion of interests in the colonies was made for 
 defense against the threatened invasion of the 
 French and in support of the home government. 
 The next was in 1765, in wlilch a Declaration of 
 Eights was published, but nothing further was 
 done. The first suggestion of an independent 
 movement was made in 1774, and the first Con- 
 tinental Congress was lield in Philadelphia in Sep- 
 tember of that year ; and in October following 
 a Declaration of Rights appeared, in which nat- 
 ural rlMits were considered to some extent, and 
 representation in their colonial government de- 
 manded, and a protest against certain usurpations. 
 The result was expressed in the following words : 
 
 " 1. To enter into a non-importation, non-con- 
 sumption, and non-exportation agreement or as- 
 sociation. 
 
 " 2. To prepare an address to the people of
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 35 
 
 Great Britain, and a memorial to the inhabitants 
 of British America. 
 
 " 3. To prepare a loyal address to his Majesty, 
 agreeable to resolutions already entered into." 
 
 But the stirring events that intervened between 
 that act and July, 1776, prepared the people for 
 that grandest of all Declarations. For sublimity 
 and heroism it transcends anything ever accom- 
 plished by man ; and for the interests involved 
 in humanity no deeds of men approach it. " We 
 hold these truths to be self-evident, thai all men 
 are created equal.'" The necessary condition of 
 equality is justice, and justice among men pre- 
 cludes the necessity of charity, for those only re- 
 quire charity who suffer from injustice. 
 
 " That they are endowed by their Creator with 
 certain inalienable rights." Bold and sacrilegious 
 is the power that deprives them of these rights. 
 Emanating from a divine source, they are them- 
 selves divine, and their deprivation by force or 
 fraud is a crime. 
 
 " That to secure these rights governments are 
 instituted among men." This is the legitimate 
 object of government. 
 
 " Deriving its just powers from the consent of 
 the governed." All power derived from other 
 sources is despotism. Consent implies volition, 
 and a government sustained ]fy such power must 
 necessarily be free.
 
 36 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 " That whenever any form of government be- 
 comes destructive of these ends, it is the right of 
 the people to alter or abolish it." 
 
 This is the right of all rights. It protects the 
 people from the odious charge of revolution in 
 any change of government they see fit to make. 
 It is as legitimate to alter or abolish a govern- 
 ment as to enact laws in support of it. 
 
 "To institute a new government, laying its 
 foundation on such principles, and organizing its 
 powers in such form, as to them shall seem most 
 likely to effect their safety and happiness." 
 
 By this declaration the right to build up in 
 any form "most likely to affect their safety and 
 happiness is conceded." It ignores all authority 
 outside of the people, and leaves them free at any 
 time to " alter or abolish " and institute a new 
 government. 
 
 Upon these principles a government was par- 
 tially founded, but in the pressure of events and 
 the condition, of the country, it was for a time left 
 incomplete. Sovereignty is an essential condi- 
 tion of complete unity. 
 
 In 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the 
 Articles of Confederation. It was a compact of 
 States ; it was not national. It served, however, 
 to tide over the struggle and set the people upon 
 an independent basis. It was required to exer-
 
 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. 37 
 
 else sovereign functions of ti national cliaracter. 
 It was not endowed with that sovereignty. It 
 needed completing, and had it been clothed with 
 national sovereignty, the inestimable blessings of 
 free government would have been secured to the 
 American people, just as these principles were, as 
 ratified in 1778. 
 
 In the Articles of Confederation the States were 
 reo-arded as beino; endowed with absolute sov- 
 ereignty, and the Confederation as an agreement 
 to '' be inviolably observed by every State." A 
 government that extends its jurisdiction over the 
 whole in all matters which concern the interest 
 of the whole, or which relates to intercourse with 
 other powers with which it is connected, must pos- 
 sess sovereignty over the acts it is required to 
 pei'form and the interests it is required to pro- 
 tect. This defect in the then existing form of 
 fjovernment led to a call for a revision and amend- 
 ment of the Articles of Confederation, the his- 
 tory of which will be presented in the next chap- 
 ter. 
 
 Thus the struggle for liberty ended in a brief 
 but brilliant victory. Its fruit, which promised 
 to nourish the famishing millions, was turned to 
 bitter ashes, Avhich only impoverishes by its hol- 
 low pretensions. 
 
 While liberty itself is lost,' the name remains, 
 
 280115
 
 38 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 and since its blessings have never been felt by 
 this generation, its value is notestiinatctl. Inces- 
 sant toil and privation stultify the mental powers 
 and impoverish the spirit. 
 
 A condition that requires the whole time and 
 energy to procure the necessary means of sub- 
 sistence defeats the very purposes for which life 
 is given. 
 
 The true purpose of life is to develop and cid- 
 tlvate to their highest capacity all the powers 
 and attributes of body and mind, thus rounding 
 out the individual to full and harmonious propor- 
 tions ; but this is impossible under existing con- 
 ditions, because the wliole energies are exhausted 
 in procuring a bare subsistence. 
 
 This condition is virtually slavery — a condition 
 incompatible with the purposes of life and the 
 happiness of mankind. The attainment of liberty 
 which involves the reconstruction of government 
 is the work of the people, Avithout which life and 
 the pursuit of happiness are but idle dreams.
 
 THE FEDERAL COXSTITUTIOX. 39 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION, 
 AND AN ACCOUNT OF THE LEADING MEN 
 WHO ADVOCATED AND WHO OPPOSED IT. 
 
 " God of mercy ! must this last ? 
 
 Is this land preordaiusd 
 For the present, as in the past, 
 
 And the future, to be chained ; 
 
 To be ravaged, to be drained, 
 To be robbed, to be spoiled, 
 
 To be hushed, to be whipped, 
 
 Its soaring pinions to be clipped, 
 And its every effort foiled ? " 
 
 There has been no period in the history of 
 the world in which popidar government was so 
 nearly in the balance as in 1787, when the Federal 
 Constitution was framed and adopted by the 
 convention in old " Liberty Hall." 
 
 Long years of struggle for liberty, with vary- 
 ing success, had prepared the friends of freedom 
 throughout the world for a determined resist- 
 ance to the encroachments of usurped rights, 
 and strike a blow that would effectually destro3' 
 its power on American soil, and give civil liberty 
 an abiding place for all time to tome. 
 
 Only in their possession for a brief period, and
 
 40 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 before the plan for preserving it could be ma- 
 tured, the " eternal vigilance " so strenuously 
 urged by its master spirit Avas relaxed, and the 
 oj)portune moment was seized by the supporters 
 of aristocratic government, who decided the fate 
 of that memorable struggle, until tlie accumu- 
 lating evils of vested powers in giant corpora- 
 tions will drive the people to another revolution, 
 unless the wisdom and resolution of the present 
 generation shall, by peaceful means, avert so 
 terrible a calamity. 
 
 In 1777 the Continental Congress agreed upon 
 the Articles of Confederation to secure a united 
 resistance to the measures of Great Britain in 
 holding the colonies in subjection to her control. 
 
 In the excitement of war — and during its 
 darkest period for the colonies — these Articles 
 were framed and agreed to ; but Avhen the war 
 was over, and the busy pursuits of industry super- 
 vened, the vigilant activity and artful schemes 
 for aristocratic rule succeeded in substituting in- 
 stead a system of government beyond the power 
 of the people to control. 
 
 Among the leading men of this period and for 
 this work was Alexander Hamilton, ambitious, 
 active, energetic, talented, and brave, and fully 
 imbued with the spirit of aristocratic supremacy, 
 and without any faith in the people's capacity 
 for self-sTOvernment.
 
 THE FEDEr.AL CONSTITUTION. 41 
 
 At the close of the war lie entered into politics 
 and became the acknowledged leader of the Fed- 
 eralist, or aristocratic, l)arty, the basic proposi- 
 tion of which is tiiat " in all civilized countries 
 the peo^jle are naturally divided into two classes : 
 the one, the few, the rich, the well-born ; the 
 other, the many, the poor, the laboring masses." 
 [This passage is approvingly quoted by Garfield, 
 and credited to Hamilton. ] 
 
 It will be remembered that deputies were sent 
 to Annapolis in 1786 to revise the Articles of 
 Confederation. Mr. Hamilton was a deputy 
 from New York, and drafted an address to the 
 State, which led to the convention by which the 
 Federal Constitution was framed. 
 
 " The prevailing ])arty in the New York legisla- 
 ture was little inclined to any inaterial increase of 
 authority of the Federal (ioverninent. Hamilton 
 was appointed one of tlie delegates to that conven- 
 tion to revise the Articles of Confederation, which 
 met at Philadelphia in the following May. He had, 
 however, two colleagues, who together controlled the 
 vote of the State, of decidedly opposite opinions." 
 — A^nerican Cyclopedia. 
 
 Two projects were brought forward in that 
 body : one known as the Virginia plan, wdiich 
 contemplated the functions of a national govern- 
 ment, with a legislative, executive, and judiciary 
 of its own.
 
 42 THE XEAV REPUBLIC. 
 
 Edmund Randolph of Virginia Introduced a 
 bill early in the proceedings of the convention, 
 providing for a national government, but it under- 
 went so many changes by amendment that he 
 refused to support It, and finally, not only voted 
 against the Constitution on its final passage, but 
 used all his influence to jirevent Its ratification in 
 his ow^n State. This resolution gave rise to what 
 is known as the Virginia plan. 
 
 Mr. Paterson of New Jersey Introduced a res- 
 olution likewise, which had in contemplation the 
 revision of the existing Articles of Confederation. 
 His resolution having been rejected, Mr. Ran- 
 dolph's resolution, which had lost its original 
 character by amendments, finally grew into the 
 present Constitution of the United States. 
 
 " Mr. Hamilton set himself earnestly to work to 
 incorporate his views of government into the 
 organic law of the nation. As between the two 
 plans above i-eferred to, he strongly advocated the 
 former, and sought to make it as strong as pos- 
 sible. His scheme included an Assembly to be 
 elected by the people for three years ; a Senate to 
 be chosen by electors, to be chosen by the people, 
 to hold office during good behavior; and a Gov- 
 ernor chosen also for good behavior, by a similar 
 but most complicated process. The Governor was 
 to have an absolute negative on all laws, and the 
 appointment of all officers, subject to the approval 
 of the Senate. The Governors of the States were 
 to be appointed by the General Government, and
 
 THE FEDERAL COXSTITUTIOX. 43 * 
 
 were to have a negative on all state laws. The jiower 
 of declaring war and ratifying treaties was to be 
 vested in the Senate. He insisted in establishing 
 a national government so powerful and influential 
 as to create an interest in its support, extensive 
 and strong enough to counterbalance the state gov- 
 ernments and reduce them to subordinate impor- 
 tance." — American Ci/clojyedut. 
 
 In tliis scheme we recognize many important 
 features o£ the existing Constituticwi, especially 
 in creating a Senate and the manner of choosing 
 it ; in tiie Executive, and the mode of his elec- 
 tion, his veto i)0vver, and many other features 
 calculated to give strength to the Federal Gov- 
 ernment, as the immense patronr»ge granted to 
 officials and the control and disposition of pub- 
 lic domain by Congress and the power vested 
 in that body to create charters for individual 
 enterprises whereby capital is amassed in the 
 liands of the few to control the industrial inter- 
 ests of the people. These, with other vested 
 powers, separate the people from the government, 
 and give it a power beyond their control. This 
 is virtually a surrender of popular government 
 into the hands of usurpers. 
 
 The " self-evident. truths " enunciated in tlie 
 Declaration of Independence, which fired the 
 hearts of the patriots, were Ignored and set aside, 
 and a scheme opposite in its tendency adopted in
 
 44 THE NEW KEPUBLIC, 
 
 tluxt convention; and liberty, wliicli had so re- 
 cently won a brilliant victory on the field of bat- 
 tle, suffered an ignominious defeat in the attempt 
 to secure its blessings for all coming time by the 
 incorporation of its principles into a popular gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Upon the adjournment of the convention, Ham- 
 ilton addressed himself with all his energies to 
 secure its aitloption ; and soon there appeared a 
 series of articles in a New York journal entitled 
 "Federalist," in •u])port of the new Constitution, 
 and against the various objections in opposition 
 to it. These articles reached the number of 
 sixty-five, and exerted a strong influence on the 
 scheme of government embraced in the Federal 
 Constitution. 
 
 Under its provisions, he had the opportunity, 
 at the head of Washington's first cabinet, to set 
 In operation his favorite schemes of government. 
 Among these were banks of Issue, with which he 
 had been connected many years. He Immedi- 
 ately went to work to fund the national debt and 
 establish a United States bank. 
 
 "Both the funding system and th6 bank were 
 denounced 'as instruments of corruption, danger- 
 ous in the highest degree to the liberties of the 
 people, and Hamilton as designing, by their means, 
 to introduce aristocracy and monarchy.' " — Amer- 
 ican Cyclopedia.
 
 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIOX. 45 
 
 He charged these attacks upon Jefferson, and 
 urged the hiconsistency of his hoklhig a phicc in 
 the administration which lie assailed. Jefferson, 
 on finding Hamilton's influence in Washington's 
 cabinet predominant, retired from it. 
 
 James Madison was a strong and active Fed- 
 eralist at the time of the adoption of the Federal 
 Constitution, and was in favor of vesting Congress 
 with a power to exercise a negative in all cases 
 whatever on the legislative acts of the States, "as 
 heretofore exercised by the kingly prerogative." 
 He was a strong advocate for the ratification of 
 the Constitution, and joined Hamilton in the 
 authorship of the series of articles entitled " Fed- 
 eralist." But in 1792, while a member of Con- 
 gress, he changed his views, and became the 
 avowed leader of the Republicans ; and in 1798 
 drew up the resolutions for Virginia, as Jeffer- 
 son had for Kentucky in the same year, to coun- 
 teract the tendency of the alien and sediticion 
 laws passed in Adams's administration, known as 
 the " Kentucky Resolutions." 
 
 Robert Morris was a man of great wealth 
 and a stanch Federalist. When the first vote 
 was taken on the Declaration of Independence, 
 he voted against it (July 1, 1776), and on its 
 adoption he refused to vote, urging that it was 
 premature. He afterward contributed largely
 
 46 THE NEAV REPUBLIC. 
 
 to the support of the war; at one time Issuing 
 his notes to a large amount, whicli, however, was 
 all paid. He warmly supported liamllton in his 
 views of government, and worked for the Consti- 
 tution in the convention, and for its ratification 
 in his own State. 
 
 John Eutledge and tlie two Pinckneys of 
 South Carolina were active and influential Fed- 
 eralists, so were Governeur Morris and Roger 
 Sherman, who were all members of the Constitu- 
 tional Convention, and seemed to realize the ne- 
 cessity of withholding the control of the govern- 
 ment from the hands of the people. 
 
 It is important in this connection to say that 
 these men were as much Interested in the separa- 
 tion of the colonies from the home government 
 as any engaged in the struggle. During that 
 struuffle there were three classes of men who 
 felt a deep interest in its outcome. First, the pa- 
 triots, with the spirit of liberty glowing in their 
 breast, cheerfully and hopefully endured hard- 
 ships, and made sacrifices, deeming nothing too 
 costly in exchange for liberty. Second, a class 
 of ambitious men fully imbued with aristocratic 
 ideas, regarding the English theory of govern- 
 ment as the nearest to perfection, and the great 
 mass of the people as incapable of self-govern- 
 ment ; that " the few, the rich, the well-born," must
 
 THE FEDERAL COXSTITUTIOX. 47 
 
 rule " the many, the poor, the hxboring masses." 
 The third were tlie tory chiss, who sympathized 
 with the English side of the struggle, and secretly 
 aided them all in their power. Their political 
 views were of course like the second class ; and 
 when England acknowledged the independence 
 of the States, they accepted the situation and 
 united their fortunes with that class then known 
 as the Federalist party. They realized the im- 
 portance of the issue, and determined — no doubt 
 with honest intentions — to secure the fruits of 
 the separation by assuming the i-eins of govern- 
 ment, thereby practically ignoring the rights of 
 the people. 
 
 In opposition to the Federalists, who contended 
 for a government with power so vested as to be 
 beyond the reach of the people, were the patriots, 
 of whom Thomas Jefferson was the true type and 
 avowed leader, reduced to a minority in the con- 
 vention by the united influence and wealth of the 
 Federalists and Tories. 
 
 The majority proceeded to set aside the Arti- 
 cles of Confederation which they had been called 
 together to revise, and seizing the golden oppor- 
 tunity, with closed doors and secret sessions, 
 after four months' of stormy and angry debate, 
 brought forth the body of the Federal Constitu- 
 tion Cthe first seven articles), and in the latter
 
 48 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 p;u-t of the year 1787 submitted it to tlic States 
 for ratification. 
 
 In connection with this [)eriod, tlie following 
 account of Mr. Jefferson's character, as fur- 
 nished by the American Cyclopedia, is here pre- 
 sented : 
 
 " The character of Mr. Jefferson as a man and a 
 statesman is easily deduced from the events attend- 
 ing his career. lie was an original thinker in every 
 department of human concern, and essentially a 
 reformer. In this will be found the exj^lanation of 
 his life. He had no respect for claims of I'ight 
 founded only upon prescription, and attached no de- 
 cisive weight to authority. In the General Assembly 
 under the Commonwealth, he attached the time- 
 honored system of aristocratic and religious intoler- 
 ance as in open conflict with natural right, and for 
 that reason wrongful, however fully acquiesced in 
 and respected by preceding generations. This want 
 of reverence for king, parliament, and aristocracy 
 accompanied him to the cabinet, and dictated his 
 opposition to England. 
 
 " He carried everything to the test of abstract rea- 
 son into matters of religion. Discarding faith as 
 unphilosophical, he became an infidel ; thus present- 
 ing the remarkable spectacle of a man of powerful 
 mind and amiable disposition deeply venerating 
 the moral character of the Saviour of the world, 
 but refusing belief in his divine mission. 
 
 " In politics, Jefferson, from native bent of intel- 
 lect, was the opponent to strong government, and 
 always maintained that the world was governed too 
 much. He was in favor of the free development of 
 the exercise of human power, so far as was consist-
 
 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 49 
 
 ent with the good ordor of society, and a jealous 
 advocate of individualism. This fact colored and 
 shaped his whole political theory. The strength 
 of his convictions is obvious in the nature of the 
 changes wliich he made in Virginia law, in regard 
 to which he says : ' I considered four of these bills, 
 passed or reported, as forming a system by which 
 t'very fiber would be eradicated of an ancient or fu- 
 ture aristocracy The repeal of the laws of 
 
 entail would prevent the accumulation and perpet- 
 uation of wealth in select families. The abolition 
 of primogeniture and the equal partition of inher- 
 itances removed the feudal and unnatural distinc- 
 tions which made one member of the family rich 
 and all the rest poor. The restoration of the rights 
 of conscience relieved the 2)eople of taxation for the 
 support of a religion not theirs, for the eEtablish- 
 ment was truly the religion of the rich.' From 
 the prevailing character of Virginia society at that 
 period, no measures could have been more revolu- 
 tionary. 
 
 " His aim was to overthrow the old domination 
 of the ruling classes and raise the people. He car- 
 ried the same principle to the study of the federal 
 compact. Once convinced that the States-rights 
 doctrine of restriction was the true theory of gov- 
 ernment, he fought for it with persistent energy. 
 Thus commenced on the threshold of his entrance 
 into the cabinet the long struggle against Hamil- 
 ton, the Federal champion. ' The party which sup- 
 ported the Federal Constitution,' said Jefferson, ' was 
 aristocratic and monarchical, desirous to draw over 
 us the substance as they have already drawn the 
 forms of the British government.' .... 
 
 " In social life he faithfully carried out his demo- 
 cratic i^rinciples. Born in a class which then en-
 
 60 
 
 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 joyed a prestige and authority resembling that of 
 the higher castes of India, ho discarded every ad- 
 vantage which his birthright gave liim, and mingled 
 familiarly with the common people, as their equal, 
 
 and no more He was naturally a democrat, 
 
 and held as a radical doctrine that one man is no 
 more than another — or rather, deserves no higher 
 i:)rivileges. 
 
 " He was opposed to the forms and ceremonies that 
 characterized his pi'edecessors in office, and abol- 
 ished them to a very gi-eat extent, and aimed to do 
 his work in a common-sense way and without osten- 
 tation. A committee had usually been appointed 
 to infoi'ra the President of his election ; but Jeffer- 
 son declared it was more in consonance with the 
 simplicity of rej^ublican institutions to communicate 
 the intelligence through the common post-office. 
 .... Pie was regarded as the epitome and incarna- 
 tion of democracy as opposed to the old world of 
 aristocracy. In the j^lain, good-humored man whom 
 all might approach, clad in every-day garments, 
 and scarcely distinguishable from an honest yeo- 
 man, the masses discovered a delightful contrast to 
 the powdered and stately 'nabobs' of the past 
 
 " In his retirement, Jefferson was as powerful as 
 in office. His hand was often felt as decisively, and 
 his opinions, instilled into active minds holding 
 high i^ositions, became not seldom the ruling influ- 
 ences in public affairs 
 
 " On the question of slavery, which arose two or 
 three times during his career, his views are well 
 known. He regarded the institution as a moral 
 and political evil : as a moral evil because it was re- 
 pugnant to his cherished convictions of the equal 
 rights of man ; and as a political evil from the as- 
 sistance it offered to the old feudal svstem of aris-
 
 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION, 51 
 
 tocracy wliicli be opposed ; and would most gladly 
 have abolished the institution. 
 
 " He said that the people would remain virtuous 
 as long as agriculture is the principal pursuit, which 
 will be the case while there remain vacant lands in 
 America, ' When we get lulled upon one another 
 in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become cor- 
 rupt as in Europe, and go to eating one another as 
 they do there.' , , , , He was a tender husband 
 and father, a warm friend and delightful host." — 
 American Cyclopedia, loc. cit. 
 
 Had Mr. Jefferson, who was then in Paris as 
 Minister to France, been a member of that con- 
 vention, there is no doubt but that it would have 
 been materially changed. It is to be sincerely 
 regretted that at this important juncture in our 
 national affairs his commanding influence could 
 not have been brougiit to bear, and his acknowl- 
 edged ability exerted at a time and on an occasion 
 the most needed, 
 
 Edmund Randolph, with a view of remedy- 
 ing the defects of the Articles of Confederation, 
 early in the session introduced a resolution con- 
 templating a plan for a national government 
 clothed with the necessary sovereign functions ; 
 but by " amendments " it was soon transformed 
 into an instrument that he not only relinquished, 
 but combated with all his energy, not only in the 
 convention, but in its ratification by his own State. 
 
 George Mason took an active part in the con-
 
 52 THE NEW REPUI5LIC. 
 
 ventlon, and always upon the llbei'al and demo- 
 cratic side. He maintained that no republican 
 government could stand without the confidence 
 of the people, and that confidence could only be 
 secured by a direct election by the people. In 
 this manner he favored tlie election of the Presi- 
 dent, and for one term only. 
 
 "He opj>osed the proposition to require a prop- 
 erty qualification from voters, and spoke with great 
 enex-gy against the clause in the Constitution whiuh 
 prohibited the abolition of the slave trade till 1808, 
 declaring that slave? y was a source of national 
 weakness and demoralization, and it was therefore 
 essential that the General Government should have 
 power to prevent its increase. In some of his 
 attempts to render tlie Constitution more demo- 
 cratic, Mr. Mason was defeated in the conven- 
 tion, and when that instrument was completed 
 he refused to sign it, declaring his apprehensions 
 that it would result in monarchy or tyrannical 
 aristocracy. He was especially dissatisfied witli 
 the extended and indefinite powers conferred on 
 Congress and the Executive." — American Cyclope- 
 dia^ loc. cit. 
 
 Subsequent experience has shown the sagacity 
 and foresight of this eminent statesman, for we 
 surely have a " tyrannical aristocracy." 
 
 George Wythe joined his colleague in his 
 efforts to defeat the encroachments of aristocratic 
 ideas, and to support popular government. 
 
 Elbridoe Gerry of Massachusetts united his
 
 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIOX. 53 
 
 powers with the little band of Patriots to resist 
 aristocratic rule, and if possible to secure the 
 blessinors of a free n;overnment. He was untir- 
 ing in his zeal and devotion, and gave to the cause 
 all the energies of his soul. 
 
 Jonx Lansing and Robert Yates of New 
 York worked and voted against the Federal Con- 
 stitution, and when it came before their State for 
 ratification, they were found still contending for 
 the people's rights. 
 
 It is only necessary to mention the names of 
 the remaining number of delegates who took 
 part in the proceedings of the convention but 
 refused to sign it. They were Caleb Stroxg, 
 Oliver Elsavortii, "William C. Houston, 
 John F. Mercer, Luther Martin, James 
 McClurg, Alexander Martin, William R. 
 Davie, William Pierce, and William Hous- 
 ton. The names of these sixteen illustrious 
 men will serve as a protest to all coming gener- 
 ations against the overthrow of popular govern- 
 ment by substituting an organic law which, in 
 the language of Jefferson, " was aristocratic and 
 monarchical, desirous to draw over us the sub- 
 stance as they have the forms of the British 
 Government." 
 
 The power emanating from the people is vested 
 in such a manner as to be beyond their control,
 
 64 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 because the majority of that convention had no 
 faith in the people, and were determined not to 
 trust them. 
 
 The Constitution, which only assures the name 
 of a republic, is made the instrument by which 
 the people are held in bondage. 
 
 The cause which inspired a heroic people, 
 involving the dearest and most sacred rights of 
 humanity, was defeated in the formation and 
 adoption of the Federal Constitution. The scenes 
 of sanguinai-y strife, of suffering and sacrifice, 
 must be re-enacted on a still grander scale ere 
 the battle for freedom is won, unless the power 
 of right wielded by the potency of justice is 
 evoked for a peaceful and enduring victory. 
 
 We will close this brief account of this mem- 
 orable and important struggle for a popular gov- 
 ernment, which resulted in a defeat of the people, 
 in the language of a prominent American histo- 
 rian : 
 
 « On the 17th of September, 1787, the grand ques- 
 tion finally came up for discussion. The Constitu- 
 tion was then signed by thirty-nine of the fifty-five 
 members. It was next submitted to Congress, and 
 by them submitted to the State legislatures, who 
 were invited to call conventions to take it into con- 
 sideration. The stipulation was, that it should 
 come into operation as soon as nine States ratified 
 it ; but this was a matter of considerable difficulty. 
 "In 1787, it was adopted in conventions unani-
 
 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIOX. 55 
 
 raously by Georgia, New Jersey, and Delaware, and 
 by large majorities in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, 
 Maryland, and South Carolina. Two, however, 
 were still wanting before it could be acted on ; 
 hence, the Massachusetts convention, which met in 
 the beginning of 1788, was viewed with intense in- 
 terest. Its fate there appeared doubtful from local 
 feelings and discontents. Hancock, who had been 
 so conspicuous through the Revolution, strenuously 
 opposed it without the admission of certain pro- 
 posed amendments, by which State rights might be 
 more fully guarded. It was supported by Fisher 
 Ames [a prominent Federalist], and finally carried 
 by the small majority of nine out of three hundred 
 and fifty-five votes. 
 
 "In Xew Hampshire, the greater number of dele- 
 gates came instructed to vote against it, but after 
 an adjournment a majority of eleven was at last 
 procured. 
 
 "The requisite number of nine States had thus 
 been obtained, yet there were still wanting the im- 
 portant States of Virginia, New York, and North 
 Carolina, without which it could scarcely be 
 brought into action. In the first, the contest was 
 long and fervid, and the displays of oratory are said 
 to have been greater than any ever yet made in 
 America. Madison, who at that time was a Feder- 
 alist, took the lead in support of the measure ; while 
 Patrick Henry assailed it with eloquence almost un- 
 rivaled. He denounced it as a revolution more rad- 
 ical than that which had separated America from 
 Britain. The convention had been delegated solely 
 to amend the old federation, instead of which they 
 had brought forward a great consolidated govern- 
 ment, vesting in it the whole prerogatives, and 
 leaving to the States merely the pooi'-laws, roads,
 
 56 THE NEW RErUBLlC. 
 
 bridges, and other trilling concerns. In the warmth 
 of debate he seemed to threaten resistance if the 
 motion were carried ; yet at last declared tliat even 
 then he would remain a peaceful citizen, only de- 
 voting his head, his hand, and his heart to obtain 
 redress in a constitutional manner. The measure 
 was finally carried by a vote of eighty-eight to 
 eighty. 
 
 "New York, thus left nearly alone, could only 
 persevere at the cost of throwing herself entirely 
 out of tlie Union. Yet though the measure was 
 supported by Jay, Hamilton, and Livingston, states- 
 men of the highest character, it was carried only 
 with a majority of five, and with the demand for 
 the most extensive amendments." 
 
 Within a year from the time the old Congress 
 declared the Constitution ratified and in force, ten 
 amendments were added; nine of which are for 
 the protection of personal liberty, and the tentli 
 specifies the limit of federal powers, and guaran- 
 tees all power not delegated by the Constitution 
 as belonging " to the States respectively, or to 
 the people." 
 
 The observant reader of the early history of 
 our o-overnment will notice the sentiment of the 
 leading statesmen in regard to the question of 
 slavery. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill in the Vir- 
 ginia legislature to abolish slavery in that State, 
 which was lost by a single vote, and in Congress 
 he introduced a measure looking to final emanci- 
 pation In 1800.
 
 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIOX. 57 
 
 Mr. Mason's views have already been noticed, 
 and tlie feeling among the Republicans and some 
 of the Federalists was in favor of manumission. 
 
 But slavery was incorporated into the Consti- 
 tution, and became a part of the government, 
 with results calamitous beyond language to ex- 
 press or human thought to conceive. " The Civil 
 War placed the people in the condition out of 
 which it took the slave, and transferred their 
 masters from the Southern plantations to the 
 factory pens, machine-shops, mining pits, and 
 farms of the whole country. 
 
 The war was the result of constitutional pro- 
 visions, but the cause of it was removed by vio- 
 lating them. It makes no provisions against 
 secession, and the first advocates of it were the 
 Federalists of New England. As early as 1811, 
 Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts declared that if 
 Louisiana was admitted with slavery, it would 
 be good cause for the Northern States to with- 
 draw from the Union. Mr. Poindexter of Lou- 
 isiana called him to order, and demanded his 
 language to be put in writing, which was done. 
 The Speaker sustained the point of order, and 
 Mr. Quincy appealed to the House, and upon a 
 vote being taken the Speaker was overruled — 
 thus showing the sentiment in the House of Rep- 
 resentatives at that time to be in favor of secession. 
 4*
 
 68 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 The sole object of the Hartford Convention, 
 held by the New England Federalists, was to 
 take measures for secession, on account of the 
 obstructions to their commerce by the necessities 
 of war by a Republican administration. 
 
 It is by powers vested in the Constitution that 
 the curse of' corporate rule has corrupted tlic pub- 
 lic service, and " established dominion over mon- 
 ey, over transportation, over invention, and over 
 land and labor." 
 
 The control given to monopolies by its author- 
 ity or permission will grow still stronger; and 
 the liberties of the people are becoming, day by 
 day, less possible. It is the instrument of tyran- 
 ny and oppression, and by its provisions the ma- 
 chinery of government is made to rob, plunder, 
 impoverish, and enslave, instead of regulating the 
 rights of the people and protecting them in their 
 free exercise. 
 
 The facts of this history are well summed up 
 in the following propositions by L. A. Fisher of 
 Morris, 111. In a letter to the author, he says : 
 
 "If I read your circular correctly, your object is 
 to educate the people of this country in the funda- 
 mental facts of national reform guaranteed to the 
 American people in that compact of Union, with 
 reference to a restoration of the nation to its origi- 
 nal republican base. If I mistake not the spirit of 
 yonr field of labor, it comprises the following jjrop- 
 ositions :
 
 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTIOX. 59 
 
 " 1. That the common blessings of Divine Provi- 
 dence are the indisputable equal right of all men 
 and women to enjoy. 
 
 '• 2. That the tlenial of this right by the Crown 
 of Great Britain constituted the main points of the 
 struggle between the mother country and the colo- 
 nists. 
 
 " 3. That in the midst of this struggle, termed 
 the Revolution, the thirteen colonies found that to 
 carry on the war successfully it was indispensable 
 that they unite in one body and work under one 
 head. 
 
 " 4. That such confederation was effected on the 
 4th of July, 1776, on terms of agreement set forth 
 in an arranged compact, and witnessed by the auto- 
 graph signatures of the contracting parties. 
 
 "5. That said act of confederation was to be 
 perpetual, and form a nationality and government 
 in keeping with the terms of this confederation, 
 which guaranteed to every American citizen an 
 equal and undisputed share in all of nature's boun- 
 ties, regarded as 'endowments of the Creator.' 
 
 " 6. That to accomplish the ends of this compact 
 they saw no alternative but to cut loose from the 
 parent stock and set up for themselves ; and as a 
 matter of necessity this determination Avas made 
 part of the contract. 
 
 " 7. That such confederation should be regarded 
 as perpetual, and was so intended, stii)ulated, and 
 specified, so long as the terms of confederation were 
 sacredly regarded, forming a corporate national 
 base under tlie title of ' The United States of North 
 America,' and at the time assuming all the powers, 
 rights, and immunities of nationality, and were so 
 regarded by the nations of Europe. 
 
 " 8. That the terms of said compact minutely and
 
 60 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 definitely specify that the administration of the re- 
 sultant executive department of said nationality 
 shall be in strict unison with the charter stipula- 
 tions aforesaid, and that any deviation from the 
 spirit or letter of said guaranties shall nullify the 
 contract at the option of the aggrieved party. 
 
 " 9. That as a matter of course the executive de- 
 tails of government were to be instituted in the 
 usual manner, through representative legislative 
 action. When within one year, 1777, such effort 
 was made under the disturbed state of the country, 
 in the presence of an overpowering foreign enemy 
 and a large influential tory class of their own citi- 
 zens, in their midst in full sympathy with the enemy 
 and totally opjiosed to the independent national 
 action already taken, it is not strange that the first 
 attemi:)t to institute the executive details of govern- 
 ment should prove a failure. 
 
 " 10. And further, if I read your programme cor- 
 rectly, your object is to enlighten the people on the 
 crookedness of the administration after peace was 
 established with England. That a convention was 
 soon called at Philadelphia, ostensibly to amend the 
 first attempt at framing a constitution. At Avhich 
 time the soldiery were returned to society, and bus- 
 ily engaged with the people in the arts of peace, in 
 restoring the waste of an eight years' war, the aris- 
 tocratic and tory class were left to manage the 
 details of government to suit their OAvn tory ijrocliv- 
 ities; and that they stealthily conceived the expert 
 scheme of reversing the patriot ardor as to nullify 
 all the essential points for which the rebellion was 
 inaugurated, except the mere fact of independence, 
 and thereby secure all of those royal prerogatives 
 inherited from the British Crown. This tory class 
 found it convenient at this time to sufficiently pack
 
 THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 61 
 
 tne convention with their own ordei*, to carry its 
 deliberations, 
 
 "11. That to this end, when met, their first act 
 was to form themselves into a secret conclave, 
 knowing that if their attempts to change the na- 
 tional base from a republic to a mere constitu- 
 tional government should get to the ears of the 
 busy i^atriots, their scheme would not carry. Hence, 
 the fifth rule in the order of business was, ' That 
 nothing said or done in this convention should be 
 communicated outside.' This done, the tory ele- 
 ment prevailing, the attempt at revision was no 
 longer thought of ; and, ignoring all previous action 
 of a national character, they went to work as though 
 the United States had no previous existence, and 
 they had met to give it birth and executive being. 
 
 " 12. That after four months of secret delibera- 
 tion, our present Constitution was formed — except 
 the amendments — and brought forward for the pop- 
 ular patronage. The result has proved that this 
 tory convention understood their purpose, and were 
 adroit manipulators in changing the order of na- 
 tionality and government, that not a vestige of the 
 original republic now remains."
 
 62 THE NEW KEPUI3LIC. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION ANI> THE 
 FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 
 
 " With ti'eacherous art aud traitor hand 
 Ambitious tyrants rule the laud." 
 
 All things useful are liable to abuse ; the evils 
 of abuse are commensurate with the benefits of 
 their use. The benefits secured by good govern- 
 ment are only measured by the evils of bad gov- 
 ernment. How much of the one we may enjoy, 
 or of the other we may suffer, will depend on the 
 degree of wisdom the people bring to bear in 
 their political affairs. The experience of a hun- 
 dred years ought to lead to certain success. In 
 former ages rulers sought power by force of arms 
 and intrigues of courts ; but the arts of modern 
 diplomacy, " bossism," lobby ism, and judicial 
 legerdemain have superseded the old methods 
 with an improvement that does credit to the new 
 school of politicians. 
 
 Our patriot fathers gave us the Declaration 
 of Independence, and in it set forth the principles 
 of a true republic. The Articles of Confedera- 
 tion gave us, for a brief period and in an imper-
 
 THE ARTICLES OE CONEEDEllATIOX. 08 
 
 feet manner, ii republican form of government. 
 They gave us the name, United States of 
 America, under the form of a compact govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Eacli State retained its sovereignty. AH 
 bodies, individual and political, must exercise sov- 
 ereignty within their own spheres, for upon it 
 unity depends. Local jurisdictions are sovereign 
 in their local affairs. So are county and state. 
 The Articles of Confederation did not confer 
 national sovereignty in the exercise of those func- 
 tions most essential to nation:d unity and inde- 
 pendence. The Confederation was a league of 
 friendship and for common defense, without 
 recognizing the necessity for a sovereign power 
 to be exercised in their common interests and for 
 their common good. A few years' experience 
 showed the defects ; the results of an attempt to 
 remedy them have already been shown. 
 
 These Articles entitled the citizens of any 
 State " to all the privileges and ima)unities of 
 free citizens in the several States," and the privi- 
 leges of trade and commerce, " subject to the 
 same duties, impositions, and restrictions as the 
 inhabitants thereof respectively," and " the right 
 of requisition in case of fugitives." 
 
 The delco-ates " in Congress assembled " were 
 sent annually by the several States, not less than
 
 G4 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 two nor more than seven, " with a power reserved 
 to each State to recall its delegates or any of 
 them at any time within the year, and send 
 others in their stead for the remainder of the 
 year." 
 
 No person was capable ^f being a delegate for 
 more than three years in any term of six years. 
 
 Each State was to maintain its own delegates 
 in every meeting of the States. 
 
 Freedom of speech and debate was guaranteed 
 while in the discharge of their official duties, and 
 adequate protection to their persons. 
 
 These provisions are in accordance with the 
 true principles of republican government. Repre- 
 sentation in the national legislative body is prop- 
 erly limited and regulated. The reservation of 
 power to recall public servants and send others 
 in their stead is most salutary and important. 
 
 It is an essential provision, based on the right 
 of the employer to hold his employee responsible. 
 Another provision is made by which the dele- 
 gates are maintained by their resjDCCtive States. 
 The compensation of officers should be deter- 
 mined by the people, and specified in the Con- 
 stitution of their government — an oversight, not 
 one of the least of the defects of the federal 
 organic law. 
 
 Power is delegated to be exercised for the
 
 THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 65 
 
 people's benefit, and should at all times be under 
 their supervision and control, and returned at 
 stated periods to the people, by the expiration of 
 the term of office. 
 
 All the foi'ces in nature move in cycles. The 
 seasons come and go ; the mists from the ocean's 
 bosom are lifted by atmospheric pressure, and 
 wafted by the winds to the mountains summits. 
 They return in rivulets and streams to the soui'ce 
 from whence they came, fertilizing the soil and 
 beautifying the face of nature. 
 
 So of moral, social, and political forces in their 
 rounds, peaceful, quiet, free. In a well-regu- 
 lated government, with the expiration of the term 
 (if office the power delegated flows back to the 
 people ; but when no provision is made for such 
 return, and power is suffered to be vested, 
 retained, and exercised for the benefit of a privi- 
 leged class, its return is sure, nevertheless. It is 
 only delayed, yet when it comes, like the escape 
 of pent-up waters, it brings violence and dt Hruc- 
 tion in its course. , 
 
 Revolution is the natural order of things, hoih 
 in the domain of the material and moral world, 
 and the law is alike in both. The normal con- 
 dition is FREEDOM. All obstructions and inter- 
 ruptions produce violence alike in both. Com- 
 mon sense and experience would dictate measures
 
 66 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 for the peaceful return of power delegated to the 
 [)eople's representatives ; for it will come, peace- 
 fully if the people are wise; otherwise, inspired 
 by the most malignant passions, it will come by 
 the torch and the bayonet. 
 
 Provisions were made in the Articles of Con- 
 federation for mutual defense, and forbidding 
 alliances of the States in their sovereignty with 
 foreign powers ; for organizing land forces by 
 the States, reserving to them the right to appoint 
 all officers below the rank of colonel. All 
 charges of war and other expenses for common 
 defense were to be defrayed out of the common 
 treasury, " which shall be supplied by the sev- 
 eral States in the proportion of all land within 
 each State granted to or surveyed for any per- 
 son, and such land and the buildings and improve- 
 ments thereon shall be estimated according to 
 such mode as the United States in Congress 
 assembled shall from time to time direct and 
 appoint." The taxes for paying that propor- 
 tion was to be laid and levied by the author- 
 ity and direction of the legislatures of the sev- 
 eral States within the time agreed upon by the 
 United States in Congress assembled. 
 
 Provisions for regulating all international mat- 
 ters, granting letters of marque and reprisal in 
 times of peace, appointing courts for receiving
 
 THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDEKATIOX. 67 
 
 and determining final appeals in all cases of cap- 
 tures ; and also the last resort on appeal in all 
 disputes and differences between States in regard 
 to boundaries, " or an}' other cause whatever," 
 prescribing the method, which was by arbitra- 
 tion. 
 
 " The United States in Congress assembled 
 shall also have the sole and exclusive right and 
 power of regulating the alloy and value of coin ^ 
 struck by their own authority or that of the 
 respective States," and " to emit bills of credit."' 
 Subsequent experience has shown that liad Con- 
 gress issued its notes with the promise to receive 
 them in payment of all government dues, instead 
 of a promise to pay in silver coin for public ser- 
 vice, they would have remained at par with such 
 coin as long as the government existed. In 1811 
 such notes wei'C issued which maintained their 
 value with gold and silver, based on their legal 
 tender for public due? only, notwithstanding all 
 the efforts of the bankers and money-dealers to 
 drive them out of circulation. And all subse- 
 quent issues of that character have maintained a 
 par value, with one slight exception. 
 
 Had such provision been made no financial 
 difficulties would have arisen. The pressure that 
 moved to the call of a convention for a I'cvision 
 of the Articles of Confederation arose from this
 
 68 THE NLW REniBLIC. 
 
 deficiency, and no doubt would have been reme- 
 died, had the Republican party been successful in 
 securing a majority of delegates of their party to 
 that convention. Indeed, Edmund Randolph, a 
 strong and uncompromising Republican, moved 
 for national sovereignty by which such measures 
 could be carried out; but, as has been seen his 
 plans were defeated. 
 
 The Articles of Confederation provided for the 
 appointment by Congress of ''one of their num- 
 ber to preside, provided that no person be al- 
 lowed to serve in the office of President more 
 than one year in any term of three years," and 
 to adjourn from place to place. Congress, un- 
 der the Articles, was only a deliberative body, 
 charged with certain specified functions, dele- 
 gated by the States for their safety and welfare. 
 Every State was pledged "to abide by the de- 
 terminations of the United States in Congress 
 assembled, which by this Confederation are sub- 
 mitted to them. And the Articles of Confeder- 
 ation " shall be inviolably observed by every 
 State, and the Union shall he perpetual: 
 
 " And we do further solemnly plight and en- 
 gage the faith of our respective constituents, that 
 they shall abide by the determinations in Congress 
 assembled on all questions which by the said 
 Confederation are submitted to them, and that
 
 THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 69 
 
 the Articles thereof shall be inviolably observed 
 by the States we res2)ectively represent, and that 
 the Union shall be perpetual." 
 
 Thus, the first effort for the realization of the 
 aspirations and long-cherished hopes of the op- 
 ])ressed of every land was made on American 
 soil. 
 
 This immortal document was signed by forty- 
 eight members of the old Continental Congress, 
 on the 9th day of July, 1778, without a dissent- 
 ing voice; among whom were the most active, 
 daring, and uncompromising of the patriot he- 
 roes of the Revolution ; while only thirty-nine of 
 the fifty-five signed the Federal Constitution, and 
 sixteen opposed it. Only three of the signers of 
 the Declaration signed the Constitution — one of 
 whom, Benjamin Franklin, did so under protest ; 
 Avhile sixteen of them signed the Articles of 
 Confederation. 
 
 Had the Articles of Confederation been so 
 amended as to have consolidated their power by 
 conferring sovereignty upon the United States, 
 with provisions for carrying out republican prin- 
 ciples, no one could tell what the results would 
 have been. No United States bank would have 
 been established on the English system of specie 
 basis, which, once getting a foothold, has enabled 
 the bankers to control the finances of the coun- 
 try.
 
 70 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 No land tenures by wliicli the national domain 
 is being rapidly absorbed for S2)eculation and mo- 
 nopoly, thus reducing the people to a condition 
 of tenantry ; no legislative system by which an 
 aristocratic Senate tJiwarts the people's will, and 
 secures class legislation for the favored few ; no 
 scheming devices by which law has become the 
 tyrant instead of the protector. 
 
 No executive system vesting in its chief offi- 
 cer a power gi'eater than that of the English 
 monarch ; with an army of supporters a hundred 
 thousand strong — a power wholly beyond the 
 control of the people, and utterly indifferent to 
 their welfare. 
 
 No judiciary system borrowed from Great 
 Britain, with its hot-bed of corruption ; its intri- 
 cate, costly, dilatory, and uncertain administra- 
 tion of law, to say nothing of justice, with its 
 vast army of trained and skilled professionals. 
 Whatever judiciary system would have been 
 adopted, it certainly would not have been one 
 originating in the feudal ages to serve the pur- 
 poses of monarchy, but no doubt would have 
 been one subject to modification and control by 
 the people. 
 
 No monopolies with their blighting effects on 
 industry ; creating poverty, degradation, and 
 crime ; despotism, avaricious, unscrupulous, am-
 
 THE ARTICLES OF COXFEDERATIOX. 71 
 
 bitious, and relentless, by which capital is fostered 
 and protected and labor debased and despoiled. 
 
 These were never contemplated, nor even 
 dreamed of, as the outcome of that memorable 
 struggle for independence and freedom ; but were 
 the very i*esults they strove so hard to prevent. 
 That struggle must be renewed. Happily, we 
 have the ballot yet, and this must be the instru- 
 mentality by which our independence and liberty 
 are to be gained. 
 
 In contrast Avith the form and spirit of the 
 Articles of Confederation, a review of the Fed- 
 eral Constitution is presented. The burden of 
 effort by "eminent constitutional lawyers," as 
 Judge Story, Daniel Webster, and others, has 
 been to make it conform to " common law " ; but 
 so many-sided, complicated, and j^rofoundly intri- 
 cate are the subtleties that the o-reatest g-enius of 
 any age or country is unable to cope with them, 
 and we have questions of " constitutional law " 
 that will remain forever unsettled. 
 
 A constitution that requires the talent of a 
 Webster to interpret is not suitable for the peo- 
 ple, for a thorough comprehension of the funda- 
 mental principles that enter into the structure of 
 a popular government is essential to such gov- 
 ernment, and were no other objection open to it, 
 that alone would condemn it. But aside from
 
 72 THE ^'EW KEPUBLIC. 
 
 this, there arc many other serious and fatalones. 
 The most important are here enumerated. 
 
 It vests powers in the various governmental 
 departments beyond the reach and control of the 
 people, thus changing the form of government 
 to a constitutional aristocracy. Ambitious and 
 designing men seek positions at the heads of 
 these departments, and thus exercise the func- 
 tions of government in their own interest and for 
 their sole benefit. 
 
 It complicates the legislative system by creat- 
 ing a senatorial branch, and rendering the elec- 
 tion of Senators impossible by a popular vote. 
 There can be no advantage in two distinct 
 branches of one body. 
 
 " The objections against two Houses are, first, 
 that there is an inconsistency in any part of a 
 whole legislature coming to a final determination 
 by a vote on any matter whilst that witter Avith re- 
 spect to that lohole is yet only in train of delibera- 
 tion, and consequently open to new illustrations. 
 Second, that by taking a vote on each as a separate 
 body, it always admits of the possibility, and is often 
 the case in practice, that the minority governs the 
 majority, and that in some instances to a great de- 
 gree of inconsistency. Third, two Houses arbitrarily 
 checking or controlling each other is inconsistent, 
 because it cannot be proved on the principles of just 
 representation that either should be wiser or better 
 than the other. They may check in the wrong as 
 well as in the right, and therefore to give them the
 
 THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 73 
 
 power where we cannot give the wisdom to use it, 
 nor be assured of its being rightly used, renders the 
 liazard at least equal to the protection." — Paine' h 
 Rights of Man. 
 
 An instance illustratino; Mr. Paine's third ob- 
 jection is found in senatorial interference early 
 in the history of the Civil War. A bill passed 
 the House of Representatives to authorize the 
 Secretary of the Treasury to issue legal-tender 
 notes to defray the expenses of tlie war. Tliat 
 bill was " checked " in the Senate, robbed of its 
 authority to issue such notes, and the result is, 
 untold millions of debt, resulting in robbery and 
 oppression on the one hand, and poverty, debt, 
 crime, and misery on the other. 
 
 There are ample means for preventing evils in 
 a single legislative body, and provisions for sub- 
 mitting any measure to the people for approval 
 can be easily made. 
 
 Another serious objection to the senatorial 
 branch is that its powers are employed by the 
 wealthy and aristocratic classes for their special 
 interest and benefit. 
 
 The following editorial extract from a leading 
 Democratic journal, In commenting on the Cali- 
 fornia (Democratic) legislative proceedings, says : 
 
 " Speaking generally, the Assembly did much 
 better than the Senate. Its record on vital issues
 
 74 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 is good. Had all the bills j^assed by it become laws, 
 the rights of the people would have been better pro- 
 tected. The Senate has been the theater of manip- 
 ulation and evil practices. Useful and essential 
 legislation has in several instances been stifled." 
 
 It is no uncommon thing to " stifle " useful 
 and essential legislation by senatorial " checks," 
 " manipulations," and " evil j^i'^ctices." 
 
 In the executive department excessive powers 
 are vested. Beside the military and naval 
 authority vested in the President, and the veto 
 power by which he can render nugatory the 
 action of Congress to the extent reaching a 
 majority of two-thirds lacking one, the appoint- 
 ment of the judges of the United States Su- 
 preme Court and other Federal courts, and all 
 foreign ministers and embassadors, he has the 
 power to appoint a body-guard of one hun- 
 dred thousam' strong, of party supporters, over 
 none of whoni the people have any control. 
 
 In regard to the third (judicial) department, 
 there is no necessity, on the assumption that the 
 people are capable of self-government. Laws 
 can be so clearly expressed tliat there is no need 
 of supporting a costly institution, with an army of 
 liungry cormorants attached, to explain what may 
 be made plain to any ordinary mind. 
 
 "If we permit our judgment to act unencum- 
 bered by the habit of multiplied terms, we can per-
 
 THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDEllATIOX. 75 
 
 ceive no more than two divisions of power of which 
 civil government is composed; namely, that of leg- 
 islating or enacting laws, and that of executing or 
 administering them. Everything, therefore, apper- 
 taining to civil government, classes itself under 
 one or the other of these two divisions. So far as 
 regards the execution of the laws, that which is 
 called judicial power is strictly and properly the 
 executive power of every country. It is that 
 jjower to which any individual has an appeal, and 
 which causes the laws to be executed." — Palae's 
 Mights of Man. 
 
 In this respect, as in all others, our government 
 is made to conform to that of England, and the 
 inevitable result is a condition of the people in 
 all respects similar — so far as government is con- 
 cerned — to that of England. 
 
 A like system of land tenures, by which hun- 
 dreds of millions of acres are held by a few, while 
 millions of 2)eople are homeless and struggling 
 in hopeless poverty, with all th \ evils of land 
 monopoly rapidly increasing. 
 
 A like monetary system, by which the volume 
 of currency is controlled by corporations for their 
 own benefit. 
 
 A like system of legislation, by wiiich two dis- 
 tinct legislative bodies are created to correspond 
 with the House of Lords and House of Commons, 
 by which legislation for the people is thwarted 
 and schemes for enriching the few at the expense 
 of the many made easy.
 
 76 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 A like executive system, by which the powei* 
 is vested in a citizen that magnifies him to the 
 proportions of a monarch. 
 
 A like judiciary system, that brings with it the 
 accumulation of hundreds of years of reports of 
 decisions which are made to serve as precedents, 
 and complicated and intricate methods of plead- 
 ing, necessitating a class of skilled experts who 
 alone are permitted to be iieard in the pursuit of 
 justice or in defense of wrongs in behalf of their 
 clients. 
 
 All these are in direct violation of the princi- 
 ples and affirmations as clearly set forth in the 
 Declaration of Independence, and were incorpor- 
 ated in a government formed by the memorable 
 convention held in Philadelphia in 1787, in the 
 name of freedom and popular rights. 
 
 Its logical results are seen to-day in a govern- 
 ment in the pX'sent order of things, in which land- 
 lords and tenants, millionaires and paupers, pal- 
 aces and hovels, masters and slaves, are rapidly 
 and inevitably increasing, and in which crime, 
 under the guise and protection of law, holds sway 
 over a people robbed, impoverished, and practi- 
 cally disfranchised.
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 77 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HISTORY OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED 
 STATES, AND THE EVILS OF PARTY SPIRIT. 
 
 " My ear is pained, 
 !My soul is sick with every day's report 
 Of wrong and outrage witli which the land is filled. 
 There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart; 
 It does not feel for man ; the natural bond 
 Of brotherhood is severed as the flax 
 That falls asunder at the touch of fire." 
 
 It is sufficient for our purpose to date the ori- 
 gin of those causes that in the evtnts of history 
 have culminated in the political ^u«vties of the 
 United States to the Norman invasion. 
 
 In the eleventh century, William of Normandy 
 crossed the English Channel with an armed force, 
 Overpowered the Saxon mona;^h, and took pos- 
 session of his kingdom. He parceled out the 
 land to his officers, requiring of them allegiance 
 to his crown and military service as compensation 
 therefor. These lands were let for a rental which 
 secured to the landlords an income, -as they were 
 worked by the conquered people, most of whom 
 went with the land. 
 
 In the course of time the military service 
 was exchanged for contributions in money, with
 
 78 THE NEW RErUBLIC. 
 
 Avhicli armies were raised and equipped. As 
 events progressed, the nobility — as William's of- 
 ficers and courtiers were called — began to clamor 
 for more rights and privileges, which in the reign 
 of King John were conceded and specified in the 
 Magna Charta. The party under its authority 
 increased in strength and efficiency so as to ef- 
 fectually limit the power of the king. 
 
 In the mean time, England became a great 
 maritime power, and when enterprises were 
 opened by the discoveries in the western conti- 
 nent, they were largely entered into by Great 
 Britain, by which extensive additions of terri- 
 tory were mr le to her dominions. Especially 
 was this the'^;?r..se along the eastern coast of the 
 Atlantic, emending from the Gulf of Mexico 
 to Newfoundland. Stimulated by the spirit of 
 enterprise, British subjects came over to the col- 
 onies and built u/t< societies, calling into requisi- 
 tion political institutions which became objects 
 of interest to the home government. 
 
 In a country so distant and possessing such 
 abundant natural resources, the people became 
 more self-reliant, and the love of liberty, which 
 first found expression in religious dissensions in 
 the mother country, blazed afresh amid the free- 
 dom of nature in the New World. The sjiirit of 
 independence was fostered, and grew unconscious-
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 79 
 
 ly, as evidenced by the increasing resistance to 
 the tyranny of the home government ; and the 
 disposition to assert their natural rights finally 
 became so strong that an open revolt was the 
 result. Thus originated the Patriot or Repub- 
 lican party. In that revolt, the party demanding 
 natural rights, supported by sympathy and mate- 
 rial aid from France, Holland, and Spain, and 
 voluntary exiles from other lands, compelled an 
 acknowledgment of independence. 
 
 This was the first real victory for freedom 
 based on a recognition of the natural, equal, and 
 inalienable rights of man. But brief was its tri- 
 umph. The advocates of vested power derived 
 from kingly authority were unc^taging in their 
 vigilance, and when the occasion krose for im- 
 proving the form of government adopted for the 
 preservation of these rights so gloriously won, a 
 plan was consummated that established in the or- 
 ganic act of the new government the principles 
 of the party that originated with William the 
 Conqueror. 
 
 This party was at this time led by Alexander 
 Hamilton, whose fundamental doctrine was that 
 of a natural and Inherent division of the people 
 of all civilized countries into distinct classes — 
 the rich and the poor, the rulers and the ruled ; 
 and so thoroughly was he imbued with this idea
 
 80 THE NEW RErUBLIC. 
 
 that he sousjht with all his energies to frame a 
 government whose powers were as far removed 
 from the control of the people as a government 
 republican in form could be. 
 
 In 1786, Mr. Madison, at that time an ardent 
 adherent to Hamilton's views, proposed in the 
 Virginia legislature a convention of deputies to 
 meet at Annapolis, to revise the form of govern- 
 ment then existing. Hamilton, a deputy from 
 New York at that convention, presented a plan 
 which was adopted by that convention, for a gen- 
 eral convention of all the States to revise the 
 Articles of Confederation. At that convention, 
 which met in, '"May, 1787, the dominant party, 
 known as thei^^'ederalist, ignoring the grand and 
 fundamental idea of the divinity and equality of 
 human rights that was the inspiration of the 
 patriot fathers, and for which they sacrificed so 
 much blood and treasure to gain, succeeded in 
 overthrowing them, and establishing a govern- 
 ment based on vested powers, over which the 
 people have no control, and whose chief officers 
 are not elected directly by the people nor respon- 
 sible to them — a government more favorable to 
 ai'istocratic rule than that which the Revolution- 
 ary fathers had struggled so hard to free them- 
 selves from. 
 
 But scarcely a decade had passed after its
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 81 
 
 adoption, before the party of equal rights were 
 once more victorious ; but the Federal Constitu- 
 tion had fixed the limits and prescribed the pow- 
 ers of the government and determined its char- 
 acter. This will continue until the people once 
 more demand their natural rights, and a orovern- 
 ment based on them. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, bho declared that " the 
 party who supported l3 t/ federal Constitution 
 was aristocratic and mo)>archical," was absent 
 on a foreign mission, and I jie country lost his ser- 
 vices at home when they were the most needed. 
 All the Republicans exhausted their utmost ener- 
 gies to defeat the measure ; and denounced it as 
 no better than the government t'aey had sought 
 to free themselves from. They (v,^manded the 
 recognition and establishment of the principles 
 upon which our independence was won. They 
 declared that the party that had set aside the 
 Articles of Confederation purposely ignored the 
 natural rights of man, and established a govern- 
 ment with powers so vested that the people could 
 not control them, which was a virtual defeat of 
 popular government. 
 
 From the commencement of the present cen- 
 tury up to 1824, foreign difficulties kept the peo- 
 ple so well united that party spirit was not so 
 manifest. However, in 1811, Josiah Quincy, a 
 4#
 
 82 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 rank Federalist, declared that disunion would be 
 justifiable under certain circumstances ; and in 
 1812, the Hartford Convention was called — a 
 Federalist movement — to take into consideration 
 the necessity of the New England States seced- 
 ino; on account of the embarso laid on their 
 commerce by the governpient. With these ex- 
 ceptions, no important evj nts occurred to indicate 
 their designs. tj, 
 
 Upon the accession of Mr. Monroe to the 
 Presidency, in 1817, narty lines seemed almost 
 imperceptible. In reply to an address of the cit- 
 izens of Maine, he said : " The farther I advance 
 in my progress in the country, the more I per- 
 ceive that we ,*^re all Americans; that we com- 
 pose but one ^Y^^^J Nothing could give 
 
 me greater satisfaction than to behold a per- 
 fect union among ourselves — a union which is 
 necessary to restore to social Intercourse its 
 former charms, and to render our happiness as a 
 nation unmixed and complete." He believed the 
 people were unanimous in their opinions, and 
 " that no second party was necessary to the well- 
 being of the government." As evidence of the 
 unanimity of party feeling, Mr. Monroe was re- 
 elected in 1820, by a vote of 231 out of 232— 
 the whole number of electoral votes. 
 
 How differently Presidents talk in these days !
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 83 
 
 Party spirit rules ; officials live and thrive on it, 
 and do all in their power to foster and keep it up. 
 During the Presidential campaign of 1824, 
 party, spirit, which had been quiet — with the ex- 
 ceptions above noticed — for nearly a quarter of 
 a centui-y, began to revive, and by the next Pres- 
 idential election rose to a considerable height. 
 Various causes conMbuted to this result ; no 
 doubt amons: them v ., '-e the cessation of hostili- 
 ties, the increase of lov.? interests as new States 
 Avere added to the Union, and the conflict of in- 
 terests arising from increasing industries. But 
 most of all was the prospect held out by Andrew 
 Jackson, who had become a prominent candidate 
 for President, of a removal of office-holders — at 
 least, of such as were not strongly on their side — 
 and the distribution of their places as spoils to 
 the victors ; that is, rewards for electioneering 
 purposes, which were fully carried out upon his 
 accession to the Presidency in 1828. Since then 
 the practice thus Inaugurated has tended to 
 intensify party spirit by appeals to personal am- 
 bition and selfish aims, rather than honest dif- 
 ferences In regard to political principles and 
 policies of government, which characterized the 
 Federal and Republican parties previous to that 
 time. This gave a different turn to the politics 
 of the country, being thus transferred from the
 
 84 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 domain of politic science to that of personal 
 strife for party supremacy and the spoils of 
 office. 
 
 The vast powers conferred by the Constitution 
 upon the President has made that office the 
 object of the most zealous and determined pur- 
 suit, and the great parties have become mere fac- 
 tions, organized for the so^e purpose of profit, 
 power, and prestige ; and,^ avc lost sight of tlie 
 people's interests altogether. In view of these 
 facts, how foolish and short-sighted It is to be 
 carried away by party spirit, to train under the 
 whip of some leader for the sole purpose of ele- 
 vating him to power ! 
 
 But we must not lose sight of the old Federal 
 party. During Jackson's administration, under 
 a new name, and stimulated by his hostility to 
 one of their favorite and most reliable schemes — 
 the United States bank — their leaders made a 
 grand effort to defend it, and by gaining party 
 control fix it upon a lasting basis. It will be 
 remembered that the occasion of this struggle 
 was the attempt to renew the charter of the 
 National Bank, which would expire in 1836. 
 
 Falling in that, they gave their attention to 
 State banks, and by the time of the outbreak of 
 tiie Civil War they had acquired the financial 
 ability to cope with and control the nation's treas-
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 85 
 
 vu'v, which enabled them to dictate the creation 
 of corporations for the purpose of monopolizing- 
 the currency, by which commerce, trade, and all 
 the industries of the country are controlled, and 
 thus bring the wealth-producer and wage-earner 
 to a condition of servile dependence. 
 
 Since the Civil War, this element has absorbed 
 the most wealthy of both the old parties, and 
 creating itself intra an oligarchy, controls the 
 action of both the '^r.t:,;iiinant parties in all the 
 departments of the government. In 1868 the 
 Democratic party had declared a policy not al- 
 together favorable to their interests — that is, 
 payment of national bonds according to the pro- 
 visions by which they were purchased, and they 
 set themselves to work and defeated it. In 1872 
 Grant's re-election was necessary to carry out the 
 plans they had so successfully Inaugurated dur- 
 ing his first administration, and Mr. Greeley was 
 sacrificed to secure it. In 1876 the Democratic 
 nominee for President received 157,037 more 
 votes than his competitor, who, however, was in- 
 stalled into office because he was the choice of the 
 oligarchy ; and during that administration, though 
 the Democrats had a majority on joint ballot of 
 13, no measures were introduced and matured 
 from cither party looking to the interests of the 
 people.
 
 86 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 In a word, tlie old Federal party, that gave us 
 the Constitution, has gained a permanent control, 
 attracting to its ranks many from modern democ- 
 racy ; it has retired from the field of party strife, 
 and is enabled to hold sway by manipulating Its 
 own rank and file, as well as the other party, 
 through its tools, the politicians, who are satisfied 
 to take their chances in the scramble for office, 
 depending for success upon tVeir appeals to party 
 spirit; and by prejudices lu.d animosities, stimu- 
 lated by party zeal aroused by subsidized jour- 
 nals, stump oratory, bold and artful misrepresen- 
 tation and reckless promises, they manage to keep 
 the people in subjection to their interests. 
 
 In our present condition there is no hope of 
 relief from the oppression and robbery carried 
 on under the provisions and sanctions of the 
 Federal Constitution. By it powers are vested 
 In and exercised by giant corporations, who are 
 able to clothe all their crimes in the habllimants 
 of law, and succeed in impressing upon the peo- 
 ple the sanctity and inviolability of all govern- 
 ment proceedings. By the power it vests in the 
 chief executive, It makes this office so much the 
 object of pursuit that ambitious and unprincipled 
 men resort to all means In their power to gain it. 
 
 Party spirit is becoming stronger under the 
 stimulus of increasing patronage and emolu-
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 87 
 
 ments and more tlioi'ough discipline ; and elec- 
 tions are merely ratifications of conventions 
 controlled in the interest of great coi'porations, 
 the culmination of the old Federal party. 
 
 Such officers so elected recognize no responsi- 
 bility to the people, and over whom the people 
 have no control whatever. In private business 
 the employer claims and exercises control over 
 his employee ; in j;ublic business the reverse is 
 the case. This reversal is despotism, and must 
 end in revolution in some way. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that the prevailing party 
 of to-day, which sways political factions for 
 selfish and ambitious ends, is the same party that 
 prevailed in the convention that framed the Fed- 
 eral Constitution, and datino; its orijcin to the act 
 of King John at Runymedc, in 1215. Emanating 
 from royalty and granted to nobility, it still re- 
 tains its aristocratic character, and has estab- 
 lished that condition in society which Hamilton 
 ascribed to natural causes. The people are di- 
 vided into two classes — " the few, the rich, the 
 well-born," and " the many, the poor, the laboring 
 masses " — by the power of unjust laws. 
 
 The real evils of party spirit consist in the bias 
 it creates, the animosities and prejudices it en- 
 genders, and the blind zeal and reliance upon 
 party leaders it inspires and promotes, thus de-
 
 88 THE NEW KEPUBLIC. 
 
 feating the very purposes intended in establish- 
 ing popuhir government. 
 
 Passionate attachment to party disqualifies the 
 mind for deliberation and judgment, without 
 wliich free government cannot exist. It leads to 
 opposition of interests and strife, compelling tlie 
 people to take up the interests of individuals in- 
 stead of interests of public concern. This will 
 inevitably be the case when the aims and objects 
 of party are the spoils of office. Party spirit 
 now becomes the instrument of desio-ning men 
 as we have so often seen manifested in political 
 " bossism " within the last few years. 
 
 Washington's Farewell Address is as applicable 
 to the people of to-day as it was in 1796 ; and his 
 views in regard to the evils of party spirit apply 
 more forcibly now than ever before in the history 
 of our government. He says : 
 
 " I have already intimated the danger of parties 
 in the State, with particular reference to the found- 
 ing of them on geographical discriminations. Let 
 me now take a more com])rehensive view, and warn 
 you in the most solemn manner against the baneful 
 effects of the spirit of party generally. 
 
 " This spirit is unfortunately inseparable from 
 our nature, having its root in the strongest passions 
 of the human mind. It exists under different 
 shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, con- 
 trolled, or repressed ; but in those of the popular 
 form it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly 
 their worst enemy.
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 89 
 
 "The alternate dominatiou of one faction over 
 another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural 
 to party dissensions, which in different ages and 
 countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormi- 
 ties, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads 
 me at once to a more formal and permanent despo- 
 tism. The disorders and miseries which result 
 gradually incline the minds of men to seek security 
 and repose in the absolute power of an individual, 
 and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing fac- 
 tion, more able or more fortunate than his competi- 
 tors, turns this disposition to t!ie purposes of his 
 own elevation on the ruins of public liberty. 
 
 " Without looking forward to an extremity of 
 this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be en- 
 tirely out of sight), the common and continual mis- 
 chiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make 
 it the interest and duty of a wise people to discour- 
 age and restrain it. It serves always to distract 
 the public councils and enfeeble the public admin- 
 istration. It agitates the community with ill- 
 founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the 
 animosity of one part against the other, forments 
 occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the 
 door to foreign induence and corruption, which 
 find a facilitated access to the government itself 
 through the channels of party passion. Thus, the 
 policy and will of our country are subject to the 
 policy and will of another. 
 
 " There is an opinion that parties in free coun- 
 tries are useful checks upon the administration of 
 the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit 
 of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably 
 true, and in governments of a monarchical cast, 
 patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with 
 favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of a
 
 90 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 })Oj)ular character, in govei-nments purely elective, 
 it is a spirit not to be encouraged. From their 
 natural tendency, it is certain there will always be 
 enough of that spirit for every salutary purpose. 
 And there being constant danger of excess, the 
 effort ought to be by force of ]nxblic opinion to mit- 
 igate and assuage it. A hre not to be quenched, it 
 demands a universal vigilance to prevent its burst- 
 ing into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should 
 consume." 
 
 To the reflecting mind a retrospect of the iiis- 
 tcry of party spirit will disclose the sagacity, 
 wisdom, and forethought expressed in the sol- 
 emn warning of this illustrious man. They are 
 seen in the recent elections. Without an issue 
 of the least importance to the interests of the 
 people, the two political parties, by appeals to 
 party spirit, and arousing public passion, they 
 drew to their ranks millions of adherents, the 
 sole purpose of which was the contest for suprem- 
 acy of the one party or the other. In this way, 
 questions which should command the attention 
 of the people, and the understanding of which is 
 essential to their interest, are thus diverted from 
 consideration and discussion. All questions of 
 great importance are thus neglected, and the 
 people's minds filled with prejudice and mutual 
 hatred, they are not qualified to act intelligently. 
 Popular government is in this way defeated, and 
 party spirit is the chief instrumentality by which 
 the defeat is accomplished.
 
 REVIEW OF OUll JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 91 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 
 
 " For sjjariug justice feeds iuiquity." 
 
 " There's a fish hangs in the net like a poor man's rights in 
 the law." 
 
 As civilization advances, the ruder and less 
 developed institutions gradually yield to more 
 advanced and mature. 
 
 Each onward step is attended with difficulty 
 in proportion as the peojile are rude and unde- 
 veloped. The conservative element here asserts 
 its prerogative, and the conflict is between error, 
 supported by prejudice, bigotry, and the aggran- 
 dizement of those whose interests it supports on 
 the one hand, and the light of advancing thought 
 expressed in new ideas, sought to be applied to 
 the welfare of society, on the other. 
 
 So firmly do laws and institutions once estab- 
 lished remain fixed, and so easily are prejudices 
 excited for them, that it is no difficult thing for 
 interested parties to retain the old and prevent 
 the new. 
 
 Thus a judiciary system, established hundreds 
 of yeai's ago, in the feudal ages, in a monarch i-
 
 92 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 cal government, attendetl with imposing ceremo- 
 nies and fixed forms, is preserved in its material 
 characteristics and transmitted to us. 
 
 This system does not aim at justice, it only 
 professes to administer law ; and whatever might 
 have been the intention of formulating justice in 
 the terms of law, the distinction is now so great 
 as not to be included in the same category. 
 Precedents, arising from decisions, the conditions 
 which gave rise to them having ceased long years 
 ago, and in localities thousands of miles away, 
 form the basis of judicial decisions to-day. 
 
 " The English Courts all decide according to pre- 
 cedent, or if no former decision can be found, then 
 by analogy, to what has been decided in similar 
 cases, or upon some general principle which has 
 been recognized ; and in cases entirely new, have 
 sometimes sought aid from the Roman Law." — 
 American C>/clo2)edia, loc. cit. 
 
 That is to say, when a case arises that comes 
 under no previous decision, they go hach to 
 heathen institutions for light, ignoring the judg- 
 ment of modern thinkers, and all the benefits of 
 modern science and philosophy. Common sense 
 and the promptings of natural justice are alike 
 io-nored, and we have a fossilized system as arbi- 
 trary and unyielding as the bed of Procrustes. 
 
 " The Courts of the United States have a general 
 correspondence with the English judiciary system." 
 ^Ibid.
 
 REVIEW OF OUU JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 93 
 
 The modifications pertain to local jurisdiction, 
 rather than changes in the essential character of 
 the courts. 
 
 An attempt was made in France in 1790 to 
 abrogate all power of deciding from analogy, or 
 even a resort to general principles of jurispru- 
 dence ; and all cases not provided for by express 
 laws were to be refei'red to the National Assem- 
 bly, for the purpose of having such law enacted 
 as would be applicable to the particular case. 
 
 " This crude experiment," says the historian, 
 " was so unsatisfactory, that in the Code Napo- 
 leon it was thought necessary, not only to restore 
 to the courts >the power of deciding upon general 
 principles and analogy, but it was made penal to 
 do otherwise." 
 
 " General principles and analogy ! " AYho 
 understands general principles and analogy? 
 Blackstone wrote four portly vol luues to explain 
 the Common Law that every one is supposed to 
 understand. It requires years of study and dis- 
 cipline to be able to expound the law, and yet 
 every one above an idiot or lunatic is responsible 
 to it. The Emperor Nero is said to have dis- 
 played his tyranny by causing the laws to be 
 placed beyond the people's knowledge, and then 
 punishing them for disobeying them. 
 
 The people in this government are virtually
 
 94 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 in tlic same condition ; for the laws are access! 
 ble to very few ; and if one wishes a legal opin. 
 ion, it costs him a good round fee — an opinion 
 that generally leads to litigation, and is stoutly 
 denied by the opposing counsel, who is of equal 
 ability. 
 
 It is not strange that men eminent in the legal 
 profession should disagree in the most vital 
 points of law ; for when we come to consider that 
 law is a vast accumulation of rules, regulations, 
 orders, decisions, opinions, speculations, theories, 
 legislative enactments, and customs, running 
 back to " the time the memory of man knoweth 
 not to the contrary " ; when we further consider 
 the machinery for its administration is so compli- 
 cated, cumbersome, intricate, dilatory, and uncer- 
 tain — we cease to wonder at the diversity of 
 opinion ; for it requires more than human ability 
 to comprehend the whole. But the great won- 
 der is, that since simple justice is all the people 
 demand, and that its administration is so simple, 
 easy, certain, direct, and less costly, that it does 
 not take the place of the present burdensome 
 and oppressive system. 
 
 There is no reason why the people should tol- 
 erate and suffer from such a judiciary system. If 
 the laws were written in plain, clear, and explicit 
 language, so that all could read and understand
 
 REVIEW OF UUU JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 95 
 
 them, andeatiy, simple, and direct methods of ad- 
 ministration devised, the objects and purposes of 
 law \Yould be accomplished at very little cost and 
 infinite relief to the people. 
 
 The history of judicial proceedings is one of 
 injustice, cruelty, and tyranny. It is a history 
 of fraud, crime, and oppression perpetrated in a 
 legal way. Its great feature is the conviction of 
 ])Oor and obscure offenders, and the infliction of 
 heavy penalties ; while wealthy criminjds and 
 those occupying prominent })Ositions in society 
 are allowed almost perfect immunity: the former 
 to " vindicate the law " and spread terror among 
 the lower classes ; the n'tter serves for an im- 
 mense revenue to the profession, and is a consid- 
 eration for compounding 'crime in high places. 
 
 In the attempted compromise between the rob- 
 ber chiefs of the Mussel Slough land-steal and 
 the settlers thereon, Mr. Huntington said in sub- 
 stance : " We have the government to back us 
 up; the settlers can do nothing." 
 
 Instances of outright forgeries, recognized by 
 judicial enactments, and nailed by precedents, ai'e 
 numerous ; as instance the Broderick Will Case, 
 the outlines of which are here presented : 
 
 " David C. Broderick, a United States Senator 
 from California, fell in a duel with David S. Terry, 
 in this city and county, and died a few days there-
 
 96 THE NEW llEPUBLIC. 
 
 after, September 16, 1859, He left an estate in 
 San Francisco of the value of about three hundred 
 thousand dollars. It was generally believed that 
 he left no kindred ; in fact, he was rej^orted to 'have 
 so declared a long time before his death. During 
 the few days which passed between his injury and 
 his decease, he said nothing in regard to having any 
 kin, or having made any will. After his death, a 
 thorough search among his papers and effects was 
 made, but no will was discovered, and the public 
 administrator took charge of the estate, 
 
 " On the 20th of the following February John 
 A. McGlynn and Andrew J. Butler presented to our 
 Probate Court and had tiled for probate a docu- 
 ment whicli purported to be the last will and testa- 
 ment of David C, Broderick, in which they were 
 named as executors with^^iit bonds, in connection 
 with George Wilkes of ^'ew York City, It dis- 
 posed of the entire estate ''m two brief paragraphs — 
 to John A. McGlynn was. given $10,000, to George 
 Wilkes the residue, 
 
 "On the day appointed for hearing the application 
 of McGlynn and Butler for letters testamentary, 
 various persons appeared, claiming to be heirs, and 
 contested the proposed paper on the ground that 
 it Avas forged. The trial was set for June 18, 1860, 
 when it was commenced, and it continued until 
 October 8th following. Many witnesses were ex- 
 amined and depositions were read of persons resid- 
 ing in New York, On the date last given, the 
 Probate Court (Judge Blake) held the alleged will 
 to be genuine, admitted it to probate, and appointed 
 McGlynn and Butler executors without bonds. 
 Appeals were taken by the claimants, or those de- 
 claring themselves to be heirs, which were dis- 
 missed fur want of prosecution. (It would not
 
 REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 97 
 
 puzzle the average lawyer to guess how this came 
 about.) 
 
 "The executors, in the course of administration, 
 obtained an order of court authorizing them to sell, 
 either at private or public sale, the whole or any 
 portion of the estate. The sale was advertised for 
 November 30, 1861. On November 29, 1861, the 
 Attorney-General, Thomas H. Williams, on behalf 
 of the State, and on the relation of Frank M. Pixley, 
 Esq., Attorney-General elect, but not yet in office, 
 filed in the Fourth District Court an information 
 alleging that Broderick had died intestate and 
 without heirs, and that his estate had escheated to 
 the State of California. On the same day he com- 
 menced in the same court a suit in equity to ob- 
 tain an injunction against the sale of the estate by 
 McGlynn and Butler. A temporary restraining or- 
 der was issued pending the information. 
 
 "On the hearing it wmclaimed by the plaintiff 
 that the forgery was acr «"$ iplished after this man- 
 ner : Butler, who was in this State when Broderick 
 died, and afterwards, conceived the job ; and go- 
 ing to New York, confederated witli Moses E. Flan- 
 agan, James R. Maloney, George Wilkes, John J. 
 Hoff, and Alfred A. Phillips. Flanagan, who had 
 been in the habit of using, by consent, Broderick's 
 senatorial frank, wrote simulated signatures on sev- 
 eral sheets of paper. Phillips wrote the will above 
 one of those signatures, and he and Hoff signed 
 their names as witnesses. It was not disclosed 
 where the alleged will was discovered. It pur- 
 ported to have been made in the city of New York, 
 on January 2 (Sunday), 1859. 
 
 "McGlynn, who was not charged with the forgery, 
 was the only defendant who appeared. He denied 
 on information and belief all the allegations of the
 
 98 THE XEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 complaint. Ilis defense was that the will was gen- 
 nine, and that tlie decree of the Probate Court 
 admitting the document to probate was final and 
 conclusive, and could not be questioned by any- 
 other court — under the statute which provided 
 that after the lapse of one year from the probate 
 of a will the probate shall be conclusive. 
 
 "Judge Hager held that this statute did not pre- 
 clude courts of equity from setting aside wills the 
 probate of which had been procured by fraud. He 
 said : ' It seems like an anomaly in law that by any 
 course of reasoning, based on principle and legal 
 authority, we should attempt to establish the valid- 
 ity of a forged will, which is of itself a nullity, or 
 of its probate procured by fraud and perjury; and 
 if successfully done, I fear it would be a reflection 
 upon our institutions and a stain upon our juris- 
 prudence It is i£ged that equity will not 
 
 interfere, even if it be fiitablished that the will is 
 a forgery, and its probate procured by fraud and 
 perjury. If this be sound in principle and sup- 
 ported by authority, we deduce a controlling prin- 
 ciple of law to the following effect: That if aperson 
 successfully consummates the forgery of a will, and 
 by fraud and perjury gets it admitted to probate, 
 and for one year thereafter conceals the evidence 
 
 of his crime, he may acquire an estate Such 
 
 a principle Avould seem to be in violation of natural 
 justice, absolute rights, and public policy. . . . . I 
 am not able to understand why a forged will should 
 be placed upon any footing different from a forged 
 deed.' 
 
 " Having declared that the only satisfactory evi- 
 dence in the case was that evinced by the will itself, 
 Judge Hager proceeded : 
 
 " ' An inspection of the will discloses to the
 
 REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 99 
 
 senses some peculiar pheuomeua, and many re- 
 markable visible signs that are suggestive and cir- 
 cumstantially strong against the probable truth of 
 some of the defendants' evidence. It is manifest 
 to the eye that, in the signature " D. C. Broderick," 
 and in the words "John J. Iloff, 131 and 133 Wash- 
 ington Street, Huboken, N. J.," the ink of the one 
 is of a darker tint than that of the other, and tliat 
 both are much darker-hued than the writing com- 
 posing the body of the document and the certificate 
 of attestation. In the last-mentioned instance it 
 is so demonstrable, upon mere inspection, that I 
 can hardly suppose tlie entire document and signa^ 
 tures wex'e written on the same occasion, at the 
 same table, and with the same ink, as we are led to 
 infer was tlie case from the testimony of Phillij)8 
 and Iloff. 
 
 •"The will consists of <;ne sheet of letter paper ; 
 the signature is on the third line of the second page, 
 and is succeeded by the certificate of the subscrib- 
 ing witnesses. 
 
 "'The body of the will contains twenty-one lines 
 of manuscript. Of these, eighteen are entire lines, 
 without interlineation. As the lines approximate 
 the signature the letters become gradually and very 
 perceptibly smaller, and the words were more con- 
 densed and crowded, and in the last line a few of 
 the words are carried beyond the marginal line, 
 which is the only instance where it occurs, either 
 
 in the body of the will or the certificate 
 
 These phenomena, so remarkable and extraordi- 
 nary, apparent upon the face of the will, and estab- 
 lished in some respects with the certainty of a 
 mathematical demonstration, are unexplained, and, 
 in view of the evidence, cannot upon any reason- 
 able hypothesis be attributed to chance or accident.
 
 100 THE NEW REPUHEIC. 
 
 The ordinary manuscript of a scrivener would 
 scarcely ever' exhibit such marked peculiarities. If, 
 however, as some of the evidence tends to indicate, 
 the name " D. C. Broderick " was first loritteu, and 
 that alleged signature and the initial line on the 
 first page formed a Proscrustean bed, in which the 
 body of this alleged will was placed and made to 
 conform to it, we have a solution.' 
 
 "The judge ordered the injunction issued as 
 prayed for. McGIynn appealed, and a memorable 
 argument followed before the Supreme Court. 
 Messrs. Hoge and Wilson represented the appellant, 
 and succeeded in upholding the will. Judge Ila- 
 ger's injunction Avas dissolved. James B. Haggin 
 represented the self-declared heirs-at-law, and Greg- 
 ory Yale fought like a Titan for the lost cause. The 
 following vigorous extract from his brief is hei-e 
 presented : 
 
 '"The great effort is now, and always has been 
 since the accidental probate of this felonious paper, 
 to take shelter behind a formal decree legalizing 
 the felonious act. Will or no will when pro- 
 pounded for probate, it is claimed that it became 
 an immaculate testament when solemnized by cer- 
 tain forms. Broderick may not have made a will, 
 but Butler, with his co-conspirators, has secured 
 the Probate Judge's name, if not D. C. Broderick^s, 
 to the paper, and no human power can detach it. 
 This is the doctrine that this court is called upon 
 to sanction. Years and generations hence, the 
 term of 18G2 is to be signalized — as the forgers and 
 speculators would decree it — as an epoch in the 
 legal history of this great State, when its highest 
 tribunal pronounced in favor of an unmitigated 
 fraud, only because an inferior tribunal had sanc- 
 tioned it, and because the law afforded no escape
 
 REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 101 
 
 from its own machinations. Such reflections upon 
 the law are unwarrantable, unworthy of any civil- 
 ized code, and humiliating to listen to.' 
 
 " The Supreme Court refused to interfere with the 
 probate of the will, on the ground that the decree 
 of the Probate Court was final and conclusive, the 
 statutory period of one year having elapsed since 
 its probate, and not subject, except on an appeal to 
 a higher court, to be questioned in any other court, 
 or he set aside or vacated by a court of equity on 
 any ground (20 Cal. 234). 
 
 "The estate was accordingly sold, and distributed 
 in pursuance of the terms of the will." 
 
 The following instance shows a case in which 
 a precedent overrides the Constitution of the 
 United States, as given by Samuel Sinnett of 
 Iowa : 
 
 " There is no place where reform is more loudly 
 called for than in our courts of law. It is strange 
 that in the latter part of the nineteenth century 
 the demand for reform in our courts has not been 
 treated with that respect to which such a subject 
 is entitled. But, instead of keeping up with the 
 spirit of the age, and repealing old obsolete laws 
 and rulings in our courts, we are piling up a pyra- 
 mid of absurd and complicated contradictory stat- 
 utes, that are victimizing all those that seek justice 
 in our courts. Fully four-fifths of the people are 
 in favor of courts of arbitration (where no lawyers 
 should be allowed to plead), where cases might be 
 tried on their merits, and justice rendered without 
 such fearful costs and the torture of prolonged de- 
 lay, and the rude and often insulting of the cross- 
 questioning of the counsel, who often treat witnesses
 
 102 THE NEW KErUBLIC. 
 
 as if they were in the habit of perjury. Then our 
 whole sys-tem is wrong. The idea of one man de- 
 ciding a case wliere eleven are in favor of convic- 
 tion might have done very well in the days of John, 
 but is altogether out of place in the present age. 
 Why not have a two-thirds majority render a ver- 
 dict? The Grand Jury is a relic of a past age, 
 which, like the Electoral College and the Senate, 
 ought to be sent up to tlie garret with the rest of 
 the lumber. But some will ask, " What would be- 
 come of our lawyers? " They could not all be sent 
 to Congress and the Legislature. Your system 
 would simplify justice, and there would be little 
 chance for prolonged litigation. Then were our 
 laws honestly executed (bad as some of them are), 
 there would not be such cause for complaint; but 
 we find our courts have become mere skinning es- 
 tablishments, where the flaying is continued as long 
 as there is hide enough left to pay for the operation. 
 You can't give even a simple note off-hand any 
 more without there is an iron-clad provision to pay 
 a reasonable attorney's fee (generally from $50 to 
 1100, when |5 would be ample pay for the service), 
 and then costs are all secured by provisions of the 
 note. But worst of all is the iron-clad mortgage, 
 with its coupons, each and all claiming like fees 
 and costs. I know of one firm that has loaned out 
 five millions of iScotch capital on mortgages on 
 farms (these money-lenders always prefer that class 
 of property), the principal and interest-coupons all 
 to be repaid in gold at a certain banking-house in 
 New York. AVhat a fat thing this will be for the 
 lawyers that collect them ! Now, this is always 
 loaned on a valuation of one-third, so that there is 
 a rich margin to fatten on. And yet those very 
 farmers will vote for lawyers to represent them, ex-
 
 EEVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 103 
 
 pecting those men to make laws to protect the peo- 
 ple from such a system of things. What fools the 
 lawyers are to neglect their own interests! Now, 
 the worst class of men to send to Congress and the 
 Legislature to made laws are, without excej^tion, 
 lawyers, because they have no interest in common 
 with their constituents, and will make the laws as 
 mysterious and contradictory as j^ossible. 
 
 "It is generally believed that judges are seated 
 on the bench to administer justice agreeable to law 
 and in harmony with the Constitution, as it is gen- 
 erally conceded that no statute can be of force when 
 it conflicts with the Constitution. I will here relate 
 a little of my own experience in that respect. We 
 had one of those legalized robbery schemes en- 
 forced here, termed a five-per-cent tax, to aid in 
 building a railroad. A number of the tax-j^ayers 
 refused to pay the tax, and sued out an injunction 
 against the collector forbidding him selling our 
 property. (Just imagine : selling our homes out to 
 build a railroad to rob us!) Well, they sent for a 
 certain judge from a neighboring county to come 
 and try the injunction suit. In rendering his de- 
 cision he made use of the following singular state- 
 ment : " That there was little doubt but the law iocs 
 unconstitutional.^^ Private jjroperty shall not be 
 taken for public purposes without just compensation 
 (tr. S. Const.); but there was a decision by which 
 he would have to be governed, and he dissolved the 
 injunction and ordered our property to be sold. 
 The judge that had so just a respect for the deci- 
 sion of a court and so little for the Constitution 
 has since been advanced to the Supreme Bench, 
 where his decisions will become law for future as- 
 piring pettifoggers. I will here state another case 
 to show how justice is carried on in our courts. A
 
 104 THE NEW KEPUBLIC. 
 
 certain young man committed forgery for some 
 trilling amount. The penalty was only three 
 months in the penitentiary. He wanted to plead 
 guilty, but certain limbs of the law saw a good 
 chance for a hand, and persuaded him to stand a 
 trial. Well, he was indicted for the offense, and 
 the State attorney drew up sixteen different charg- 
 es or counts in the indictment, for which he charged 
 sixteen different fees against the county ; and as the 
 prisoner had no money to hire counsel, the judge 
 appointed one of the bar to defend him, for which 
 he was entitled to |10 fee, but he brought in a bill 
 of $160, being $10 for each count in the indictment. 
 That man is one of the law-makers of Iowa, and the 
 prosecuting attorney is befoi'e the people for elec- 
 tion again, with a good prospect of success." 
 
 And thus innumerable cases have originated 
 without the least merit, and carried through a 
 long and costly litigation to a successful issue ; 
 and innumerable other cases founded on justice 
 and with real merit have met with an opposite 
 fate. 
 
 The only reason why such a monstrous system 
 of oppression is suffered to exist, is that we rever- 
 ence antiquity and venerate the institutions of 
 the past, and bow to their authority by the sheer 
 force of custom and education. . As a means for 
 the administration of justice, our judiciary system 
 is a most signal failure ; as a source of wealth to 
 a class of professional vampires, it is a most sig- 
 nal success.
 
 REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. lOJ 
 
 The moral Influence of the courts of hiw and of 
 the legal profession is corrupting and degrading. 
 The courts are stern, dignified, and despotic, 
 exacting the most servile obedience to their man- 
 dates, with severe and summary punishment for 
 " contempt," as non-obedience to their dictates is 
 termed ; all of which Is to enforce slavish obedi- 
 ence and protect the " majesty of the law " ! As 
 fitting instruments of these despotic institutions 
 are the "legal profession," who infest every com- 
 munity, and live in wealth and luxury at the peo- 
 ple's expense. 
 
 Mlsrejiresentation, cunning, and artifice are 
 their implements, and skill in the intricacies of a 
 subtle craft their stock in trade. Falsehood sup- 
 ported by all the sanctity of an oath administered 
 in the most solemn and Imposing manner, and sup- 
 ported by all the craft that cunning can devise, 
 is a frequent factor in the solution of their legal 
 problems. 
 
 Clients, whose desire for victory is intensified 
 by the zeal and assurances of their advocates and 
 the sympathy they excite, imbibe the spirit of 
 their champions, and cherish with peculiar sat- 
 isfaction the exaggerai?ions, misrepresentations, 
 schemes of artifice, and often of falsehoods, 
 employed by their attorneys, and these they 
 carry to their homes and associates, where
 
 106 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 they are commented on and admired, and thus 
 the poison, originating in well-trained and skill- 
 ful brains versed in all the arts of decep- 
 tion, is diffused throughout society ; and as 
 custom blunts by familiarity, so the finer sense 
 of justice, which under proper circumstances 
 would demand the right, is lost in the coarser 
 sense of self-interest. 
 
 The influence of the legal profession in politi- 
 cal affairs is well nigh omnipotent. As a rule, 
 its members are the "politicians" and man- 
 agers of all the scheme s for corporate villiany, 
 always pliant and purchasable. As practice 
 in the courts is a species of warfare, and 
 as all measures of deceiving the enemy and tak- 
 ing advantage of his weak points are justifiable 
 in warlike tactics, so must the legal practitioner 
 of necessity become familiar with and resort to 
 these arts of war. However justifiable they may 
 be on the battle-field, at the bar, and in conflict 
 with moral forces, their effect is necessarily in- 
 imical to integrity and uprightness of character. 
 The rule of exception applies here as elsewhere, 
 and it is due to the profession to say that some 
 legal minds have reflected great credit upon 
 human nature. 
 
 The vocation necessitates craft, and the practice 
 makes men crafty.
 
 REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 107 
 
 The following, from the pen of John Swinton, 
 will be fippreciated by every admirer of that 
 able reformer : 
 
 "In the business of subverting the liberties of 
 our beloved country, I do not dread the soldier with 
 his rifle nor the conspirator with his mask, nor the 
 fool, fanatic, or the demagogue, nor the king in 
 his regalia, nor the cleric with his tongue, nor the 
 editor with his quill, nor Satan with his liorus, nor 
 yet the millionaire with his millions, if they have 
 but a fair field. The man to be dreaded in this 
 republic is the shystering lawyer; legal machina- 
 tion is the thing of menace and danger. It is in 
 this country especially that the people need to be • 
 on the alert against legal quibblers ; here they swarm 
 as they do nowhere else on the globe, not only in 
 the courts, but in legislatures and their lobbies, and 
 every place of power and greatness. 
 
 " How often, in searching amid the ruins of pop- 
 ular properties in other countries that once enjoyed 
 them, do we come upon the tracks of the false lavv- 
 ver! For what oppressor has he not found a legal 
 subterfuge ? For what deed of guilt has he not 
 been ready to erect a legal bulwark? Do we not 
 find him with a legal defense of every usurpation 
 of every usurper; with a legal justification for any 
 invasion of every birthright of man ; with a legal 
 quibble over every great popular franchise ; with a 
 legal glaze for every clear word of freedom ; with 
 legal pettifoggery against every establishment of 
 right ; with a legal weapon for nullifying every vic- 
 tory of progress ; with a legal jimmy, as Major 
 Ilaggerty lately said in the Assembly, to pry open 
 every man's safe ; with legal mechanism for tearing 
 out every stone in the fabric of justice, and for rear- 
 ing every pillar in the edifice ol: wrong ?
 
 108 THE NEW KErUBLIC 
 
 "■ Not a guilty deed has ever been perpetrated 
 by power ; not a base treason has ever been hatched 
 against the Commonwealth ; not a device has ever 
 been set for the subversion of any popular right — 
 but the false lawyer has stood ready to uphold it 
 with the armament of false legality. He battered 
 the Twelve Tables of Rome, he made of no effect 
 the Ten Commandments of Moses, he stifled the 
 genius of Magna Charta, and he is now scuttling 
 the Constitution of the United States." 
 
 The reform of this monstrous evil, so much 
 needed and so essential to a true republic, is 
 very simple and easy. The remedy may be 
 expressed in three words — Let it alone. 
 
 In all civil cases, provisions are made by law 
 to settle all controversies by arbitration. Let tfie 
 people settle their own disputes in their own way, 
 and give the lawyers an opportunity to earn an 
 honest living. Some modifications may be needed 
 so that all cases may be settled in this manner. In 
 criminal cases, a similar method may be employed, 
 so that courts may in time cease to exist. 
 
 In the disposition of property by inheritance, 
 the vast amount of litigation and expense now 
 incurred in the settlement of real estates of de- 
 ceased persons could be avoided by conveying 
 the title by deed of gift. Especially would this 
 eive almost infinite relief to wives of deceased 
 persons whose estates must be jirobated at an 
 enormous expense, annoyance, and delay.
 
 REVIEW OF OUR JUDICIARY SYSTEM. 109 
 
 It must be remembered that the power of the 
 government is the will of the people, and that 
 that will is sovereign ; and further, that the peo- 
 ple are interested in nothing but their advance- 
 ment and welfare, and that reason and wisdom 
 dictate the rule of justice. 
 
 All that is needed is that the people shall 
 agree. It would be far better on the score of 
 economy, as vastly more is expended in litigating 
 claims than is claimed in litigation. This fact 
 being realized, many persons refrain from the 
 courts and suffer absolute losses in consequence. 
 Then why should they be su^iif^ained ? 
 
 This reform would be reni^^'-ed easier by other 
 reforms. Thus a volume of, tilon,ey sufficient to 
 dispense with credits woultl taky away an im- 
 mense amount of legal practice r but as it is, 
 the profession will favor a contnj^^ted currency 
 which by compelling the extensive ,'ise of credits 
 and legal instrumentalities for the >yollection of 
 debts, lawyers find amjjle and profitaole employ- 
 ment. 
 
 Withholding natural rights from women, by 
 which a vast amount of business finds its way 
 into the courts, is another source of patronage to 
 the legal profession. So, really, the ])eople sup- 
 port a burden of cost in the administration of 
 law instead of justice, that supports and enriches
 
 110 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 a vast army of lawyers, judges, and attaches to 
 the courts that would support the expenditures 
 of government — a system in which the most 
 money wins and the defenseless are victimized. 
 
 The subject of litigation in the courts of jus- 
 tice (?) is fraught with such vast importance to 
 the people that any means by which some method 
 of litin-ation can be substituted demands the most 
 earnest and careful attention of the people. The 
 most determined efforts to supply its place with 
 a simpler, safer, si^eedier, cheaper, and more ef- 
 fectual method of settling difficulties arising from 
 injuries unjustly i,u£fered is imperatively de- 
 manded. If the jeople have confidence in their 
 friends and the community in which they live, if 
 they are willing to appeal to those Avith whom 
 they are acquainted for the rectitude of their 
 purposes auKf their acts, they certainly have a 
 tribunal io>. die adjustment of all controversies 
 arising f roivt disputed claims, and protection from 
 injuries, acuial or threatened ; for these purposes 
 we can easily devise and set in operation a 2)lan 
 for the adjustment of matters at variance with 
 those with whom we deal, and protection from 
 personal injury. 
 
 In matters of a civil nature, a system of ad- 
 judication can be easily established. Indeed, 
 such a system already exists, and is enacted in
 
 REVIEW OF OUIl JUDICIAKV SYSTEM. Ill 
 
 the code of our civil procedure. It is by arbi- 
 tration. Let it be perfected, and let every well- 
 disposed citizen resolve to resort to it. If this 
 subject was discussed and made familiar to the 
 public mind, and its advantages considered in all 
 their bearings, there need be no difficulty in real- 
 izing the vast benefits it would confer upon the 
 government and society. 
 
 In regard to criminal proceedings, no greater 
 difficulty exists. Let an officer be elected in 
 each local jurisdiction, whose duty will be to ar- 
 rest and hold in custody an offender upon the 
 complaint of a citizen, issued by the executive 
 officer, with proper guards a:''d restrictions. Then 
 let the accused select an ai--i- trator, and the exe- 
 cutive officer one; let these two agree upon a 
 third ; if they fail, let the accused select another 
 and the officer the same, and so continue until an 
 odd number is secured. We have here a court 
 and jury in the same body of men, ind far better 
 qualified to administer justice th-il any legal 
 court in existence, because the courts are bound 
 by law and precedents, whereas this body of men 
 are perfectly free to make their decision accord- 
 ing to the promptings of natural justice and the 
 merits of that particular case. Or the arbitrators 
 might be drawn from a list of citizens — say one 
 hundred.
 
 112 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 The chai'ixc anil defense can now be conducted 
 in a quiet and speedy manner. Upon submitting 
 the case, let a majority determine the verdict; let 
 there be no appeal and no further proceedings in 
 the matter, except, in case of conviction, the dis- 
 position of the criminal. 
 
 The great questions that have long been in 
 dispute, and taxed the erudition of the greatest 
 minds, involved considerations of lavi and not of 
 justice, whose demands are simple and easily un- 
 derstood ; while those of law are extremely com- 
 plicated, abounding in subtleties and intricacies 
 too deep for a single mind to grasp, as evidenced 
 by the vast accumuf'ation of decisions found in 
 " Reports," and carfliiully preserved and consult- 
 ed by the most eminent jurists. Thus litigation 
 is tied up in the endless mazes of the law. 
 
 The substitution of a simple, easy, natural 
 method would remove a vast burden in the shape 
 of courts of law and their attendant officers and 
 attorneys, it would save millions upon millions 
 to the people which now go to support useless in- 
 stitutions and an army of non-producers who 
 cause positive mischiefs far in excess of the nega- 
 tive injuries the people sustain in supporting 
 them.
 
 STOCK OrERATIONS. 113 
 
 CHAPTER yill. 
 
 STOCK OPERATIONS, "RINGS," AND "CORNERS." 
 
 "Foul Avarice! dread foe to bumau weal, 
 Inflicting sorrows that tlioii canst not lieal; 
 Spirit of the gambler's dreadful fate, 
 That lures him on to hell's grim gate." 
 
 Within tlie last twenty years, speculations In 
 stocks, in " rings," and " corners " on the various 
 productions of the country have grown into a 
 serious evil. 
 
 We read of extensive operations in stocks and 
 bonds, and suppose they are made in good faith. 
 But such is not the case. Watering stock is a 
 process not easily detected. The purpose is to 
 obtain larger returns for money invested than 
 could be openly charged. There is nothing 
 gained in watering stock of a strictly private 
 corporation, because no addition is made to its 
 value ; but public corporations, whose revenues 
 are derived from public service, see the way to 
 immense profits through fictitious additions to the 
 amount of their capital stock. The people do 
 not know what the charges should be, but are 
 satisfied that net profits should equal current 
 rates of intei'est. If one million invested is
 
 114 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 watered to five millions, the investors will draw 
 five interests on the amount put in. If the 
 capital stock thus inflated can be made to pay 
 interest, its value becomes solid. It is worth in 
 the iuarket ivhatever sum it will pay dimdends on. 
 The great fortunes which have been acquired 
 within the last twenty years in the United States 
 were largely through this process. 
 
 The people would not stand charges for service 
 which would enable a corporation to declare a 
 dividend of fifty per cent a year on their invest- 
 ment ; but if that investment is multiplied by 
 ten, thus reducing their rate to five per cent on 
 ten times their capital, the matter seems to be 
 easily arranged. 
 
 If a laborer should demand pay for nine dum- 
 mies of like wages as his own, he would be 
 severely and summarily dealt with; but untold 
 millions can be drawn from poor laborers by 
 scheming capitalists on the same principle, with 
 nothing more than a feeble protest. 
 
 These sales are generally fictitious. As many 
 causes can be brought to bear to produce fluc- 
 tuations in the price of stocks, the chances of 
 advance or decline are simply dealt in. Corpo- 
 ration rings congregate in money centers, and so 
 manipulate as to reduce the price of stocks and 
 bonds, purchase largely, and then manipulate so
 
 STOCK OPERATIONS. 115 
 
 as to advance the price, while the real value is 
 not changed during the entire transaction. 
 
 Quotations are dictated in such a manner that 
 those not in the secret have no means of know- 
 ing their actual value, and by false representa- 
 tion are induced to purchase at such figures as 
 to sustain a loss in the transaction. Or an oper- 
 ator may make a venture and purchase with the 
 hope of an advance, and watch his opportunity 
 to sell. 
 
 The operation of speculating in stocks becomes 
 intensely exciting, as all chance operations always 
 do when indulged in. Thousands of dollars will 
 sometimes change hands in a few hours, and some- 
 times millions are " made " in a very few days' 
 operation. For instance : 
 
 " A agrees to purchase of B, four days after the 
 date, $15,000 in stocks quoted at 93 cents, at 95 
 cents, being an advance of two per cent on the 
 market price on the day of sale. The stock does 
 not advance, and at the time for delivery A pays B 
 the margin between the two cents on the dollar and 
 the market price. No stock has passed between 
 them. It was a fight between a ' bull ' and a ' bear' 
 for the margin. 
 
 " Nearly all of the financial operations of Wall 
 Street brokers are of a like character. Some of 
 them involve immense amounts. One man makes 
 a fortune and another becomes bankrupt in a day. 
 .... Men run about the streets, into the 'gold- 
 room' and the 'clearing-house,' their faces flushed,
 
 116 THE m:\v republic. 
 
 their whole person excited, their appearance ' dis- 
 tracted, hair disheveled,' their voices hoarse, all 
 intent on making money, not in a legitimate way, 
 but by the chance of a rise or fall in bonds and 
 stocks."—!). (J. Cloud. 
 
 " Corners " are made on pork or wheat, or 
 some other staple, by purchasing all in tlie mar- 
 ket, and then holding it for high prices. Advan- 
 tage is taken of the supply in the market, or the 
 chances of a deficiency of a supply, and often 
 millions are realized in this way. 
 
 Combinations of capitalists go into the market, 
 and so rule the price of commodities in which 
 they deal as to leave no option with the producer, 
 as he is not a party to the contract in the sale of 
 his products ; indeed, there is no sale ; they are 
 simply transferred into the hands of these greedy 
 speculators, and there is no alternative left to the 
 l)roducer but putting the fruits of his year's toil 
 into their hands and at their price, or leaving his 
 produce on his farm to rot. They stand between 
 him and the market, and shut him out from all 
 its advantages. He lias no voice in the disposal 
 of his own products. 
 
 " Rings " in the channels of trade and business 
 continue to get the lion's share of profit from the 
 producers of wealth. The channels of business 
 are so arranged tliat the products of the farmer 
 ])ass through too many hands before gettlno; into
 
 STOCK OrEKATIO^S. 117 
 
 those of the consumer. Each time they change 
 hands a profit must be taken out of them ; and so 
 many pi'ofits are exacted that, while the producer 
 receives barely enough to pay decent wages for 
 his labor in producing them, his profits will 
 scarcely support his family. 
 
 Thus, by the machinations of a few men, the 
 great multitude are ke[)t at hard work, with their 
 noses to the grindstone, so to speak, to eke out a 
 poor living for themselves, while the}' are sup- 
 porting the few in luxury and general indulgences. 
 Those who produce the means of life for the 
 world should have, at least, a fair share in the 
 world's good things. But things seem to be 
 drifting from bad to worse. Produce exchanges 
 have been organized for the purpose of increas- 
 ing indefinitely the number of times of the sale 
 of the farmers' crops, and thus to make the dis- 
 tance from the producer to the consumer greater, 
 and at the same time to cut down the j^i'ices 
 to the producer and put them up to the consumer. 
 Will these two great classes continue to be hood- 
 winked in this way by the plans of the exchange ? 
 
 An adequate and just system of the exchange 
 of commodities is a great desideratum of our gov- 
 ernment. Production and consumption are the 
 vital and ever-pressing necessities of life, and to 
 effect that exchanore so that nothinor is o-ained or
 
 118 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 lost by it, but the benefits of it secured, is a prob- 
 lem demanding immediate solution, because frpm 
 unjust exchanges arise the evils here treated of, 
 and others to be considered hereafter. This ex- 
 change requires skill and labor, and therefore costs 
 something, and is worth something to the producer 
 and consumer. What it costs and lohat it is 
 Korth constitute the very essence of this problem. 
 AVhat it cost for the exchange by the simplest 
 and most direct method is justly added to the 
 price for consumption. 
 
 In proof of the evils of this indirect and un- 
 just exchange, the farmers point to the enormous 
 fortunes accumulated by dealers in their produce 
 in short periods of time ; they point to their 
 lavish expenditure of money in providing costly 
 plans of business, in building magnificent resi- 
 dences, and maintaining costly modes of living 
 and outfits for their families to appear in. They 
 instance the fact that these merchants most 
 always have long bank accounts, and can at any 
 time when they find a farmer in a tight place 
 furnish him with money at a high rate of inter- 
 est, provided he is well secured. 
 
 Tiiey feel that the monopoly and combination 
 are coming to the front and getting control of 
 the cliannels of business and trade, till the small 
 business men and farmers have become the
 
 STOCK OPERATIONS. 119 
 
 " hewers of wood and drawers of water " for 
 those who have been so fortunate as to get in- 
 side the rings and business combinations. 
 
 Notwithstanding Grangers' Associations, Farm- 
 ers' Alliances, Trades Unions, and otlier organiza- 
 tions with a view of checkmating the concentration 
 of capital, and combinations for controlling the 
 business and trade, these evils from which we 
 suffer are still growing and becoming more ag- 
 gressive. 
 
 Thus the producer and consumer alike suffer 
 by " middle men " pushing the burden of cost 
 upon them by increasing the number of ex- 
 changes, and cutting down prices to the producer 
 and putting them up to the consumer. 
 
 The remedy for these evils is co-operation in 
 all the industrial interests of the country. When 
 avarice is dethroned and justice rules, then unity 
 of interests will secure to all the means of life, 
 and ample time and opportunity will be afforded 
 for the culture and enjoyment of the higher and 
 nobler elements of our being. In the mean time, 
 and as a step to this higher condition, let the 
 farmers and all others who produce wealth em- 
 ploy agents to whom they will consign their 
 produce and purchase the necessary goods for 
 their consumption. Let, for instance, thirty or 
 forty persons agree to pay into a common fund
 
 120 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 say 110,000, eacli putting in according to his 
 means. Let them meet and elect three of their 
 number to act as directors, wlio shall do the busi- 
 ness for the whole. Let tliese directors enter 
 into bonds, as public officers are required to do, 
 for the faithful discharge of their duties. Let 
 the consignee and agent at the place of market 
 receive a certain commission for selling and buy- 
 ing, and keep a set of books as a check to those 
 kept by the directors. Let a suitable storehouse 
 be provided in a central location for the reception 
 and distribution of the goods. Let each contrib- 
 utor make a memorandum of what he will need 
 for the year (or for any other lengtli of time), 
 and the approximate cost of the same, for whicii 
 he is entitled to draw from the common store- 
 house to the amount of his contribution. Let a 
 distributor or clerk who has no interest in the 
 matter be employed at a salary to deliver to the 
 contributors to the extent of their credit, who 
 will also keep a set of books. 
 
 When the goods are stored, let the price be 
 marked, including in it the first cost, commission, 
 transportation, cost of storage, distribution, and 
 compensation of directors as previously agreed 
 upon. 
 
 Or let an association of traders and manufac- 
 turers furnish the goods and receive the produce,
 
 STOCK OPERATIONS. 121 
 
 and thus save the agency of " middle men." 
 Something like this established among the indus- 
 trial classes will save to them the profits that 
 now go to enrich a class of non-producers. 
 
 Where a remedy exists, let it be applied. But 
 the grand remedy lies in the regulation and protec- 
 tion of natural rights. The free exercise of these 
 will secure to all the greatest good, measured 
 only by the capacity of the peojjle. 
 
 In connection with this subject, it would be 
 proper to notice the monopoly of the press. This 
 is the worst of all monopolies, not only because 
 it prevents the publication of journals on small 
 capital, but because intelligence is monopolized. 
 
 The power of the press is everywhere acknowl- 
 edged. If devoted to the interests and Avelfare 
 of the whole, its power for good is inmieasurable ; 
 and no less the evil if given to the service of cor- 
 porate power and associated capital in the hands 
 of the few. In this, as well as in other cases, 
 large cai)ital can only compete with large capital ; 
 but in this, the increase of capital offers peculiar 
 facilities. The supply of published matter is in- 
 creased without a corresponding outlay of expen- 
 diture. Thus the second thousand copies of a 
 paper is attended with only the additional cost of 
 paper, pi-ess-work, and the distribution. In case 
 of fifty thousand copies, dividing the whole cost 
 G
 
 122 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 by that number, the cost of one tliousand would 
 be much less proportionally than could be af- 
 forded for a single thousand copies. So the 
 monopoly is made nuich easier than that of other 
 enterprises. 
 
 In addition to this, the press caters to selfish 
 interests, and is effectually controlled in the 
 interests of the oligarchy, to monopolize the 
 intelligence of the country and shape it so as to 
 control public sentiment. We offer the follow- 
 ing, copied from an Eastern paper, which will ex- 
 plain itself : 
 
 " The real truth coucerning the capitalistic 
 press of America was uttered by a prominent New 
 York journalist at a press dinner a short time since. 
 The reunion on that occasion was of men who 
 write and do the real work on the papers — the 
 drudges. When the hackneyed and ridiculous 
 toast, ' The Independent Press,' was proposed, the 
 j jurnalist referred to, being called on to respond, 
 said he did not wish to do so, but the company in- 
 sisted upon it with loud acclamations. He finally 
 arose and said : ' There is no such a thing in Amer- 
 ica as an independent press, unless it is out in 
 country towns. You are all slaves. You know it, 
 and I know it. There is not one of you who dares 
 to express an honest opinion. If you expressed it, 
 you would know beforehand that it would never 
 appear in print. I am paid $150 for keeping hon- 
 est opinions out of the paper I am connected with. 
 Others of you are paid similar salaries for doing 
 similar things. If I should allow honest opinions
 
 STOCK OPERATIONS. 123 
 
 to be printed in one issue of my paper, I would be 
 like Othello before twenty-four hours : my occupa- 
 tion would be gone. 
 
 " ' The man who would be so foolish as to write 
 honest oj)iuions would be out on the street hunting 
 for another job. The business of a New York 
 journalist is to distort the truth, to lie outright, to 
 pervert, to villify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, 
 and to sell his country and his race for his 
 daily bread, or for what is about the same — his sal- 
 ary. You know this, and I know it; and what 
 foolery to be toasting an "Independent Press"! 
 We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind 
 the scenes. We are jumping-jacks. They pull the 
 string and we dance. Our time, our talents, our 
 lives, our possibilities, are all the property of other 
 men. We are intellectual pj'ostitutes.'' 
 
 "The bloom of sorrowful conviction fell upon 
 the company, and the over-truthful journalist took 
 his seat in profound silence." 
 
 The control of telegraphic communication in 
 connection with the press places journalism be- 
 yond the control of the people. In this way 
 public sentiment is swayed in spite of all efforts 
 to prevent it. 
 
 Smaller enterprises are shut out because they 
 cannot afford to publish at the rates of large es- 
 tablishments. Tims the press, a power of incal- 
 culable influence, aided by the telegraph, is made 
 the instrument of tyranny and oppression. 
 
 What is the remedy for this great monopoly ? 
 Patronize ])ublications that enlighten the people
 
 124 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 and advocate their interests, that fearlessly dis- 
 cuss all questions connected with human welfare. 
 Let the subscription lists of such papers be in- 
 creased to tens and hundreds of thousands. 
 Then they could be furnished much cheaper and 
 become more efficient. Do the peo})le consider 
 that by supporting the subsidized press they 
 furnish the weapons by which they are robbed, 
 and bare their necks for the master's collar ? Is 
 it possible that they cannot see this ? 
 
 The people's will, intelligence, and energy 
 must combat the corporations' capital ; and thus 
 by united effort the monopoly of the press will 
 be destroyed.
 
 NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED. 125 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED. 
 
 "If I'm designed yon lordling's slave — 
 
 By Nature's law designed — 
 "Why was an independent wish 
 
 E'er planted in my mind? 
 If not, why am I subject to 
 
 His cruelty and scorn? 
 Or, why has man the will and power 
 
 To make his fellow mourn?" 
 
 Natural rights being founded on the neces- 
 sities and requirements of life, and the sole and 
 legitimate objects of popular government being 
 their regulation and protection, it is proposed 
 here to consider them in their relation to such 
 government. 
 
 The right of personal liberty has been so 
 thoroughly discussed and appreciated that little 
 requires to be said in regard to it. The love of 
 liberty is so intense that its protection is one 
 of the first provisions of civilized life. The 
 machinations of ambitious men have secured 
 schemes for the accomplishment of their pur- 
 poses in absorbing the fruits of labor, and the 
 personal liberty of the wealth-producer is more 
 favorable for that. Moreover, the interests of
 
 126 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 such men would rather suffer than otherwise by 
 the abridgnient of personal liberty. More profit 
 can be realized by the labor of those whose means 
 of life are controlled than those in whom the em- 
 ployer has the right of property. 
 
 The wealth produced by labor is the object 
 sought, and the poverty of the wealth-producer 
 is the condition that best serves their purposes. 
 Therefore it is in the right to the means of life 
 we find the subject under consideration. 
 
 1. Right of Land Tenure. 
 
 It is from the soil that all physical sustenance 
 is derived ; and as we are constantly consum- 
 ing, we must as constantly replenish. Every 
 breath we exhale, every muscle we move, every 
 thought we think, is at the expense of consumed 
 value, and requires as constant a supply. Land 
 is the all-sufficient source from which these sup- 
 plies are derived ; therefore the occupancy and 
 use of the soil becomes a necessity in the pro- 
 duction for consumption. 
 
 The value of land, tlien, consists in its power 
 to supply the demand for the consumption of 
 values. As all have a claim to these values, 
 based on the necessities of life, it follows that 
 the right to produce tliem, either directly from 
 the land, or indirectly by enhancing the value of
 
 NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED. 127 
 
 its raw productions by manufacture, is equal to 
 such claim. In general terms : 
 
 The right to live carries with it the right to 
 the means of life ; the means of life are derived 
 from the land ; therefore the right to the land, 
 to those who desire to occupy and use it, is equal 
 to the right to live. 
 
 The regulation and protection of this right is 
 one of the essential and most important functions 
 of government, and indispensable to the freedom 
 and equality of the peoplQ. 
 
 The land of a country belongs to the people 
 of that country, and it is the duty of the govern- 
 ment to secure to all its citizens its fullest possi- 
 ble benefits. Land monopoly is robbery; though 
 under the forms and sanctions of law, and ratified 
 by the decisions of courts, and established by cus- 
 tom grown gray with age, still it is robbery. All 
 the edicts of autocrats, the bulls of popes, the 
 power of legislatures, and the authority of courts 
 cannot make a wrong right nor a right wrong ; 
 and although untold millions have been impov- 
 erished and enslaved by land monopoly, it is no 
 less bitter on that account. This evil grows as 
 population increases, and it must inevitably result 
 in oppression and despotism, landlordism and serf- 
 dom. As population increases, the value of the 
 land increases just in proportion as the increase
 
 128 THE NEW RErUBLIC. 
 
 of demand gives increased value to supplies. 
 Both the cultivated and wild lands of this coun- 
 try are rapidly going into the hands of monop- 
 olists, who are thus laying the foundation for 
 absolute despotism. 
 
 The family is the foundation of society, the 
 fountain of virtue, and the basis of government ; 
 and the character of that society and government 
 will depend very largely upon the permanence 
 and ownership of the homes of the people. If 
 owned by the occupants, every inducement to 
 improve and beautify it is given ; if rented, neg- 
 lect of both is the rule. The former conduces to 
 sobriety, industry, and social improvement ; the 
 latter to recklessness and disorder. These con- 
 ditions materially affect the character of the gov- 
 ernment. The rental generally takes from the 
 tenant all his net jjrofits, which has the effect to 
 discourage and impoverish — conditions incompat- 
 ible with good government. The rents so de- 
 manded go to eni'ich idleness, build up class 
 distinctions, and by destroying equality make 
 republican government impossible. 
 
 Therefore, a radical change in the system of 
 land tenures is an imperative and absolute ne- 
 cessity. Those who live on the land must own 
 it, and those who own it must cultivate it. There 
 is no more justice or propriety in withholding
 
 NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED. 129 
 
 land from others for use, or demanding pay for 
 the use of it, than there is for withholdinof sun- 
 light or air ; the only difference being that the 
 one can be appropriated and the others cannot. 
 It is given for the support of all, and not for 
 speculation or the upbuilding of power. 
 
 Our fathers sought to avoid the evils of land 
 monopoly by proscribing primogeniture and en- 
 tails ; but corporations have accumuluted its 
 millions where primogeniture has preserved its 
 thousands. 
 
 B. S. Heath, of Chicago, has given a clear and 
 forcible exposition of this subject. He says : 
 
 "Our fathers recognized this laAv (primogeni- 
 ture), and supposed they had guarded against its 
 abuse and violation by providing equal distribution 
 of estates among the heirs of deceased persons. 
 
 "No accumulation of wealth, however large, long 
 survives its owner, if left free from legal restraints. 
 It was the boast of our ])eople that all were equal 
 before the law, and that the prize of wealth was the 
 reward of the most industrious and enterprising. 
 As a rule, the heirs of wealth soon squander their 
 patrimony. They were the autumn frosts which 
 caused the leaves of the summer's growth to fall 
 back to enrich the labor soil, to be again gathered 
 up by the resolute and ambitious sons of poverty. 
 As a rule, the rich men were the ' self-made men.' 
 
 "In this way the wealth accumulations of each 
 
 generation fall like the dews of heaven upon the 
 
 toilers of the next; and thus social conditions were 
 
 equalized. Consequently there were few paupers 
 
 6*
 
 130 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 and fewer millionaires. Comparative equality of 
 social conditions formed a deep and permanent 
 foundation for a just and permanent government, 
 
 equable laws, and purity of administration 
 
 The productive forces of society consisted of muscle 
 and bi-ain. 
 
 " Since that time great changes have taken place. 
 Occult forces, never dreamed of, have supplanted 
 skill and muscle. A ton of coal and a hogshead of 
 water will do the work of a hundred men. The 
 steam-horse and his train of a hundred tons fly like 
 meteors from town to town and from ocean to 
 ocean. The lightnings have been harnessed to the 
 car of thought, and messages are flashed over the 
 continent and across the ocean sooner than the 
 post-boy of a century ago could saddle his horse. 
 Our houses are warmed and lighted and the motive 
 power of the nation's manufactures and commerce 
 are supplied from the storehouses of nature, which 
 were locked against the generation of fifty years 
 ago. These have been developed outside the Con- 
 stitution. To handle and control them a new class 
 of persons, unknown to the framers of our govern- 
 ment, have been created. Corporations instead of 
 77ien have come to the front. Upon these new ele- 
 ments and forces incorporated greed and avarice 
 have seized, as the Norman conqueror seized upon 
 the wealth resources of Britain, and upon these a 
 new empire has been established in the land of the 
 free outside of the Constitution and the people. 
 
 " Upon them a new feudal system has been inau- 
 gurated and a new law of primogeniture established. 
 Corporations are substitutes for dukedoms, baronies, 
 and lordships, and the estates of this new feudalism 
 are as effectually immortalized by government 
 charters as were their prototypes by the Magna 
 Charta. And the perpetuation of these estates,
 
 NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED. 131 
 
 with their increasing annual accumulations from 
 the labor soil, will as su-'ely impoverish, degrade, 
 and enslave American society as the same causes 
 have exhausted the manhood of England, as their 
 l^ossessions and capacity for absorption are greater. 
 "Our Constitution must be enlarged so as to em- 
 brace these monopolies and bring them into subjec- 
 tion to the people's interests, or they will root out 
 the Constitution and establish an aristocracy upon 
 the ruins of liberty and constitutional government." 
 
 It is affirmed, and will be clearly shown in these 
 pages, that the condition so forcibly described 
 above already exists. It is only the comparative 
 sparseness of population that prevents the devel- 
 opment of a system even worse than that cf Irish 
 landlordism ; for had the territorial limits not 
 been enlarged, a condition worse than Eux'opean 
 peasantry would have overtaken us long ago. 
 These limits are reached, or nearly so ; and as 
 the land is rapidly going into a few hands, the 
 power that monopoly gives will crush out the 
 liberties of the people; for he who owns the land 
 by the authority of our land laws owns and con- 
 trols those who live upon it, provided they can- 
 not get off, and the press of population will soon 
 prevent them. 
 
 The value of land consists in its power to sup- 
 ply the demands of consumption, and a popula- 
 tion to create such demand. Without population, 
 land of the greatest fertility and with all the 
 appurtenances of natural resources would be
 
 132 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 totally valueless, and justice demands that they 
 who create it should have and enjoy it; but under 
 our laws of land tenure, that value goes to the 
 monopolizers of the land without their adding 
 anything to its value. If all who desire to oc- 
 cupy and use the land could do so, that value 
 would go to them. Thus equality of conditions 
 growing out of equality of rights would secure 
 freedom and prosperity to the people. 
 
 The right to hold the land and secure a 
 permanent title to it should be most carefully 
 guarded, and should descend by equal inheri- 
 tance by legal })rovisions. The law of primogeni- 
 ture and entail are virtually in foi'ce, since the 
 owner of land can devise, by gift or otherwise, 
 his entire possessions to one person and secure 
 perpetuity by corporate charter. The rights of 
 future generations should be protected as well as 
 the living. 
 
 Monopoly of land gives to the holders of it 
 the power to levy contributions upon the cultiva- 
 tors of it ; which power is granted by usurped 
 rights in direct violation of the law of justice. 
 It is equally as unjust to demand tribute for the 
 use of land as to lay a tribute on the personal 
 service of another for private gain. Land is 
 given for the use of all : it is the product of 
 none ; and as all need its products, all are equally 
 entitled to the right to produce them.
 
 FINANCE. 133 
 
 CHAl'TER X. 
 
 NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONTINUED). 
 
 FINANCE. 
 
 " The simplest and most jierfect form of currency is that 
 ■wliicli represents nothing but transferable debt, and of wliich 
 the material is of no intrinsic value, such as pai^er. It is 
 only when states have reached a high degree of civilization 
 that they adopt this perfect form; before they attain that, 
 the material of it entirely consists of something which 
 has an intrinsic value, such as gold or silver."— J/acfeod. 
 
 The exchange of values is a necessity of civil- 
 ized nations, and requires a medium of currency 
 to effect such exchange. This medium is money. 
 It is a token or representative of value based 
 upon the wealth of the nation, and by the 
 authority of the government declared a legal 
 tender for all debts, public and private. The 
 issue of such money and the control of its vol- 
 ume in circulation are natural rights, the free 
 use and exercise of which are the indispensable 
 requisites of republican government. 
 
 The question of finance is one of pressing and 
 vital importance to the people of a free govern- 
 ment. The principles involved in it and their 
 application to the best uses of life must be clearly 
 understood.
 
 134 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 Finance is one of the chief factors in political 
 economy, and hirgely governs the distribution of 
 wealth equally, and thus'*erves its true purpose, 
 or unequally, and thus overthrows republican 
 government, as the people are wise or unwise. 
 Equal distribution depends on equal exchange, 
 which is the sole function of money. By it 
 "wealth is secured to the producers of it for 
 their enjoyment and benefit, resulting in peace, 
 plenty, and happiness. By unequal distribution, 
 millionaires and paupers are made, monopolies 
 built up to rob and oppress, thereby creating 
 political inequalities, the legitimate outcome of 
 Avhich is the relation of rulers and ruled, master 
 and slave. 
 
 Because of its vast importance, it has been 
 controlled in the interest of the few who have 
 managed to secure its ])ower to themselves. 
 They have clothed it in mystery and woven 
 around it such an intricate network of theories 
 and speculations that the people despair of com- 
 prehending its nature and functions, thus secur- 
 ing to those few its control for their own benefit. 
 Thi'ough the monstrous robbery of banking sys- 
 tems, millions upon millions have been drawn 
 from industry to enrich idleness ; and the people 
 tolerate this because they do not understand the 
 means by Avhich it is done.
 
 FINANCE. 135 
 
 Had the people fully understood this impor- 
 tant subject, they would never have been cursed 
 with a bonded debt ; yv'ith banking corporations 
 cstablitshed for no otl^^'r purpose than individual 
 aggrandizement ; with a restricted basis for 
 money, enabling greedy and unscrupulons spec- 
 ulators to control its volume, and thus take ad- 
 vantage of the necessities of industry, to levy 
 contributions upon it under the name of interest 
 for the privilege of using it ; with the stagnation 
 of business and the ruin of many industrial enter- 
 prises ; and many other evils consequent upon a 
 false and defective monetary system, as the inev- 
 itable and calamitous results to the people. 
 
 As an instrument of exchange, it has no intrin- 
 sic value. It being only a legal power, there 
 was no necessity of creating a debt, for money is 
 simply a legal device for exchanging one com- 
 modity for another, or a service for a commodity, 
 by which the holder of it can at any time or 
 place within the jurisdiction of the government 
 demand any commodity within the circle of ex- 
 change, or service seeking compensation. 
 
 Since money has for its sole and legitimate ob- 
 ject and function the ecpial exchange of values, 
 whereby equal distribution is effected, every 
 wealth-producer could by such exchange retain 
 and enjoy the full value of the wealth he pro-
 
 136 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 duced in any and every commodity lie needs or 
 desires. No one could become excessively rich, 
 for he could not accumul.ate by exchanges — for 
 the}^ would be equal ; anc^none need be poor or 
 dejjendent, for, based upon the equality of ex- 
 change, the race for wealth would be free and 
 open for all. 
 
 To show the benefits of a true monetary sys- 
 tem and the evils of a false one, and the power 
 of money corporations to rob and enslave the 
 people, the following definitions and illustrations 
 will suffice : 
 
 Market value is based on intrinsic or real val- 
 ue, and is determined by tiie law of supply and 
 demand, and is simply the money expression 
 [price] of such value. The variations of supply, 
 the demand remaining fixed, or the variations 
 of demand, the supply remaining fixed — such 
 variations determining the price — are expressed 
 in money ; and as money represents value, as 
 long as the volume of money remains fixed ag- 
 ffreo-ate values remain unchanged. If supplv 
 increases, prices go down just to that point 
 that any given quantity will amount to the same 
 money value. Thus, if the money volume be one 
 million dollars, and all commodity values one 
 million bushels of wheat, the price will be one 
 dollar a bushel ; if the supply of the commodity
 
 FINANCE. 137 
 
 is doubled, the value it represents (one million 
 dollars) remaining fixed, the price is reduced to 
 that point that the given quantity will amount 
 to the same money value — that is, two million of 
 bushels at half a dollar a bushel just equals one 
 million at one dollar a bushel. The converse is 
 equally true : the supply reduced one half, the 
 price will be two dollars a bushel. In a season 
 favorable for production, the increased supply 
 will bring only the same money value ; the low 
 price is supplemented by increase of commodities. 
 In a season unfavorable, the diminished supply 
 will bring the same money value ; because it will 
 be supplemented by high prices. 
 
 Free from all modifying conditions, this is the 
 law of market values. Fluctuations of supply 
 and demand are in a great measure beyond hu- 
 man control ; but by the increase in the power of 
 production, as science and the arts advance, and 
 facilities for transportation increase, these fluctu- 
 ations can be materially controlled. 
 
 On the other hand, the variations in the vol- 
 ume of money affects prices as effectually ; and 
 this volume is wholly under human control ; for 
 so long as it is uniform, its representative value 
 remains fixed, but any change in volume carries 
 with it a corresponding change in value. Thus, 
 in the illustration above given, doubling the vol-
 
 138 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 ume of money would reduce its value, as ex- 
 pressed in units, to one half, and the money 
 expression in wheat would be two dollars a 
 bushel ; reducing the volume to one half would 
 double its unit value, and wheat would be half 
 a dollar a bushel. By changing its volume we 
 change its unit value; and since prices are ex- 
 pressed in units of value, market price is changed 
 to correspond with changed value of the unit, 
 and though aggregate values are not affected, 
 prices are, which enable those who control the 
 money volume to take advantage of the fluctua- 
 tions they create. 
 
 The evils arise from the unsteady and fluctuat- 
 ing volume of money, whereby prices, which are 
 money expressions of value, change without 
 change of supply of commodities. Prices are 
 thus controlled by those who control the volume 
 of money, thus leaving the wealth-producer at 
 the mercy of the money-changer. 
 
 Since the unit value of money increases as the 
 volume diminishes, and debts are estimated in 
 units of value, their value increases in propor- 
 tion as the volume is reduced. If A contracts 
 a debt when tlie volume of money is $50 per 
 capita, and the volume is reduced to |25 per cap- 
 ita, the value of his debt is doubled; if it 
 would require a thousand bushels of wheat to
 
 FINAXCE. 139 
 
 pay it at the time lie contracted it, upon a change 
 of volume, as above noticed, it would require 
 two thousand bushels, the supply of commodities 
 remaining the same. 
 
 The total amount of debts in the United States 
 — public and private — is over twenty billions, 
 most of which was contracted when the volume 
 :of money was double its present volume. Be- 
 sides intei'est, it will cost the debtors nearly 
 double that amount to pay their debts. 
 
 With an adequate volume of money, prices 
 are firm and steady (for deuiand is very nearly 
 uniform from year to year), i nd industry is stim- 
 ulated and encouraged, a^^l wealth increases. 
 Diminish the volume, credit for a time takes the 
 plac.T of money, and business goes on for a while ; 
 bu*, :bligations must be met, money increases in 
 va¥u' as it diminishes in volume, and debts in- 
 cre(ist. in the same proportion. Prices go down, 
 the demand for labor diminishes, industi'y lan- 
 guishes, and thus what the wealth-producers lose 
 the money-changers gain. 
 
 After debts have been paid and balances ad- 
 justed on the basis of increased money value, 
 the volume is inci'eased ; prices go up, business 
 is revived, enterprises are extended, and every- 
 thing begins to prosper, and will continue so long 
 as the volume of money keeps up. Another con-
 
 140 TflE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 tr.iction, and the same evil results to the people 
 follow. The control of supplies — that is, power 
 of production — is in a great measure dependent 
 on the facilities afforded by an adequate volume 
 of money ; but as a rule, price is controlled by 
 the volume of money and determines the amount 
 of values that go to the money-changers, or that 
 ■which remains in the hands of those who pro- 
 duce it. 
 
 If the law declares that money shall be stamped 
 on only one material, and that material limited in 
 quantity, it can be controlled by individuals and 
 corporations, and tJuis labor and all its products 
 will be controlled ^-oivv its net profits go to them ; 
 but if the material Uj^jon which it is stamped be 
 abundant and merely nominal in value, the vol- 
 ume of money can at all times be adjusted tc^{,vie 
 requirements of the industrial interests of th» |(ia- 
 tion, and controlled by the people for their use 
 and benefit. 
 
 The first theory of creating money (that of 
 intrinsic value) is open to several serious and 
 one fatal objection. Among the serious ones are 
 tlie limited supply of the material, the cost of 
 its production, and tlie destruction of its com- 
 modity value when coined into money. Its fatal 
 objection consists in the power it has to measure 
 all values — by representing them — thus giving
 
 FIXAXCE. 141 
 
 its holders the command of all values, and con- 
 trolling the most important function of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " It may be truly and incontrovertibly said that 
 the power of money over the affairs of enterprise 
 and labor is omnipotent ; and that they who con- 
 trol the money of a people, control their destinies 
 as surely and irresistibly as the sun controls the 
 movements of the planets of tlie solar system. For 
 those who control the character of people's money 
 thereby have it in their power to fix the price of all 
 kinds of property and labor at any conceivable 
 rate, and to change the rates or prices from time 
 to time, as their private interests dictate." — Bryant 
 on Moneij. 
 
 This power of law ves^-.tl in corporations is 
 despotism. Such is the law — a monetary sys- 
 tem based on the " precious metals," that enable 
 a f.jw to control the many and hold the entire 
 pv*luctive interests of the people in their hands. 
 And the people profess to be free, pretend they 
 have a government founded on their natural 
 rights, and that they are in the full and free 
 enjoyment of them ! 
 
 " It is such considerations as these," says the 
 same writer, " coupled with the knowledge his- 
 tory gives us of ' man's inhumanity to man,' 
 that forces us to acknowledge that it is unstates- 
 manlike, unjust, and even inhuman to have so 
 despotic a power as that whicii resides in and
 
 142 riii: xi:w hepublic. 
 
 flows from the quantity of the people's money, to 
 any principle based on mere chance like the dis- 
 covery or exhaustion of gold and silver mines, 
 or to the justice of any body of men, no matter 
 what their pretensions may be to intelligence, 
 respectability, or honor. It is a question of gov- 
 ernment, not a whit less fundamental and impor- 
 tant than that of the liberties of the people." 
 
 The true method for the exchange of values is 
 by a legal instrument, the creature of law, based 
 upon the wealth and credit of the nation and 
 the authority of the government. It expresses 
 three powers, and only three : first, it must 
 represent the valuc^^-jf all exchangeable com- 
 modities : this is ito ^'Siwer to exchange values ; 
 second, it must bear upon its face the unit of 
 value : this is its power to estimate and compute 
 values ; third, to provide for time-transactionri<it 
 must be receivable for all debts and dues, pi&blic 
 and private. By this legal-tender power, it pro- 
 tects the debtor from the avarice and tyranny of 
 the creditor. It represents value, therefore it 
 should be wherever value is, either in labor or 
 its products. It is a universal acknowledgment 
 of value given, and a universal willingness to 
 accept it for any purchasable tiling or the can- 
 cellation of any pecuniary obligation. So those 
 who desire it can readily exchange any exchange-
 
 FIXAXCE. 143 
 
 able value they desire for it ; those who hold it 
 can command any service or cotnniodity in the 
 market, transfer or convert values into other 
 values, and protect tlieraselves from all obligations 
 to their financial creditors. 
 
 Value belongs to those who produce it with 
 their own means. All expend values in con- 
 sumption, whether they earn them or not ; con- 
 sequently, those who do not produce must 
 subsist on those who do ; for since justice requires 
 equalitij of exclianrje., there can be no accumula- 
 tion by the instrument of exchange ; therefore, 
 he who consumes without in some way producing 
 value is an object of char'ty, a beggar, a thief, 
 or a robber. To effect 'tl^^ fair and equal ex- 
 change of values is the sole purpose and legiti- 
 ma-e function of money. It possesses no intrinsic 
 var'e ; therefore, to receive pay for its use would 
 be like receiving pay for the use of any other 
 legal power that does not possess intrinsic value. 
 
 Without going into details to show that our 
 exchanges through the agency of money are 
 unfair, it is only necessary to point to the fact 
 that producers, as a class, are poor, and those 
 who jiroduce nothing, but control the medium of 
 exchange (money), are as a class wealthy. All 
 the money employed in the industrial pursuits of 
 the country is borrowed at a rate of interest
 
 144 THE NEAV REPUBLIC. 
 
 far above tlte power to increase net wealth by 
 productive labor. This condition of things must 
 in the end inipoveri.'?h the wealth-producers. 
 
 AVe cannot maintain free government with our 
 present financial system, for such government is 
 founded on political equality, and this cannot ex- 
 ist where wealth is accumulated in the hands of 
 the few. Where there is great wealth there must 
 be great poverty. 
 
 Palaces and hovels, millionaires and paupers, 
 masters and slaves, are the inevitable condition 
 of the exercise of vested powers granted to cor- 
 porations by which the volume of money is con- 
 trolled. Such wealth builds up and fosters 
 aristocracy ; creates lords and serfs, proud and 
 haughty rulers, and meek and submissive slaves. 
 
 "Money," says Professor Bonamy Price,, an 
 acknowledged authority in political economy,'^ is 
 the tool of exchange, the instrument of obtaining 
 for its present possessor some commodity or ser- 
 vice which is desired. It derives its power from 
 the law, and is not dependent on any kind of ma- 
 terial." 
 
 The following illustration will show the power 
 of law to make money : 
 
 " Law can make that money which costs little to 
 produce it immensely more valuable than that which 
 was produced at a great outlay of labor. Law can
 
 FINANCE. 145 
 
 give a paper dollar a hundred or a thousand times 
 greater value or purchasing power than a gold or 
 other kind of dollar, in despite of the fact that the 
 gold dollar cost perhaps a hundred times as much 
 as the paper dollar. One might term this the mir- 
 acle of law, since the same is not true of anything 
 else produced by man. This truth arises entirely 
 from the fact practically to regulate the quantity 
 of money issued or permitted to circulate ; and from 
 the further fact, the quality of any one or several 
 kinds of money is utterly the creature of law — the 
 law makes it a full or restricted legal tender, or not 
 a legal tender at all. We can illustrate this fact 
 regarding the principles of money by supposing the 
 United States were to issue say fifty millions of 
 paper dollars, and make them the only legal tender 
 to pay any tax or debt due the government, and 
 say five hundred millions of silver dollars, and 
 make them the only legal money to pay private 
 debts due from one person to another, and say one 
 hundred millions of gold dollars which are not a 
 If .gal tender for any purpose whatever, leaving the 
 ijiople free to acceptor reject them just as they 
 j(>>e^ased. What would be the result of this action 
 C'^Our government? Sinijlythis: the law of sup- 
 ply and demand would .^it once assert itself, and 
 work in combinatic with what the law had de- 
 creed regarding t^ ^ *^ioney whereby there had been 
 created three ki^"^^ lud three qualities of money. 
 Whereas, if the law I'egarding each had been the 
 same, there would have been but one kind and one 
 quality, even if it were made of a hundred different 
 materials. As every tax or debt due to the gov- 
 ernment would have to be paid in paper dollars, 
 thereby creating an enormous demand, which could 
 only be met by the small supply of fifty millions of 
 7
 
 146 THE ^'EW REPUBLIC. 
 
 paper dollars, they would have a very high premium 
 over the gold or silver dollars. But one thing is 
 obvious and certain : those who could gtt control 
 of the paper dollars would exact any price they 
 pleased for them. The supply of silver dollars, 
 being adequate for the demand for them in con- 
 ducting the exchanges of the country, Ave may sup- 
 pose no premium could be exacted for them. But 
 the gold dollars, not being money at all — for noth- 
 ing is money save that wliich is made a legal tender 
 in payment of debts — would certainly fall to a dis- 
 count, the amount of which would be fixed by the 
 loss and expense necessary in case of expoi'ting 
 them for recoinage into other money of any nation 
 using gold for money. 
 
 "I challenge any two political economists of 
 world-wide reputation to publicly deny over their 
 own names but what such would be the result ??6- 
 cessan7_y flowing u]>on such action on the part of the 
 government of the United States or any other nation. 
 None will dare to do it, since such an act^ would 
 brand them among all scientists as infamous scoun- 
 drels who have accepted a bribe and degraCj^d 
 themselves to the level of newspaper editors ^ei-l 
 other hirelings who chami'ion lies of that character 
 against the truth and agai\ist the intei'ests of man- 
 kind."—// H. Bryant. '^^ 
 
 The above illustration sh^J;,,^ how, during the 
 Civil War, gold went up so high — at one time to 
 285. It was made by law the only money, with 
 the exception presently to be noted, that was a 
 full Ieo;al tender for all government debts and 
 dues ; and by Its scarcity it was hoarded by bank- 
 ers, brokers, and speculators, who caused the
 
 FINANCE. 147 
 
 currency of the country to be shorn of its power 
 to pay government dues. 
 
 Bonds were issued in large quantities and pur- 
 posely depreciated and made purchasable dollar 
 for dollar in this inferior kind of money. The 
 law also made this paper currency, which was 
 inferior to gold, convertible into bonds when 
 they were cheap, and the debts due to the gov- 
 ernment payable only in gold when gold was 
 dear, so as to enable the government to pay the 
 interest on the bonds in gold, and tlius it was 
 gathered back into the hands of the money lords. 
 After the bonds had advanced in value and had 
 been bought up with the paper currency pur- 
 posely made an inferior money, they were then 
 destroyed, thus converting the people's money into 
 an interest-hearing debt to the amount of twelve 
 h^'.ndred millions of dollars. 
 ,£put the first issue of the paper currency to the 
 amount of sixty millions was a full legal tender, 
 and performed all the functions of gold and kept 
 at par with it durinr. all its fluctuations. So we 
 see that money is ^j^olely a creature of the law, 
 and its purchasing power, its ability to exchange 
 values, (lepends on the quality and quantity in 
 circulation. Its quality is its legal power, audits 
 quantity in circulation determines its value. 
 
 Since a change of volume does not affect the
 
 148 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 aggregate of values, but the value of the money, 
 it is easy to make it dear and prices cheap by 
 simply changing the relation of quantities. This 
 power to regulate prices and keep them uniform 
 determines the production and distribution of 
 wealth, and consequently the freedom, pros- 
 perity, and happiness of the people ; or if con- 
 trolled by corporate power vested by law, then 
 popular government is at an end. 
 
 Webster said, at the foot of Bunker Hill, 
 "The freest government cannot long endure 
 where the tendency of the law is to create a 
 rapid accumulation of property in the hands of 
 the few and to render the masses poor and de- 
 pendent." The result of all this is thus summed 
 up in the language of C. W. Stanton : 
 
 '■ Let us look back a few years. In 1862, the two 
 exceptions in the Legal-Tender Act caused the gre<rj- 
 backs to depreciate to forty cents on the dollar, J^J 
 this act enabled the Shylocks to reap a harvest of 
 $700,500,000 at the expense of the farmers and in- 
 dustries of the country. Again, in 1863, the Na- 
 tional Banking Act was passed, creating the most 
 colossal money oligarcliy and monopoly that ever 
 damned a nation since the fouif nation of the world. 
 Li 186G wefind the Contraction* Act, whict reduced 
 our currency from ^1,800,000,000 to $700,000,000. 
 This act prostrated every industry, paralyzed every 
 enterprise, and bankrupted over a hundred thousand 
 business men and firms, throwing labor out of em- 
 ployment, filling the country with tramps and crim-
 
 riNANCE. 149 
 
 inals, and destroying over half the value of the 
 national wealth. Let us turn over a leaf to 18G9. 
 We find the Ci-edit-Strengthening Act, changing the 
 5.20 bonds from currency (lawful money) to coin, 
 giving hundreds of millions of dollars to the bond- 
 holders and taking it from the farmers and laborers 
 of the nation, and saddling on us an immortalized 
 burden of debt and interest. Another leaf, and we 
 find the Refunding Act of 1870, perpetuating the 
 public debt, instead of paying it by refunding the 
 5.20's into coin bonds payable at the option of 
 the United States. Then comes the Demonetiza- 
 tion Act of 1873, depriving us of the use of silver 
 to pay the coin obligations they have saddled upon 
 us, establishing the single gold basis, and adding 40 
 per cent to the value of all money obligations, and 
 40 per cent to the debt burdens of the people. 
 
 " One leaf more. Look at the work of 1875, and 
 we will have all we can digest at one time. What 
 do we find ? The Redemption Act, authorizing the 
 redemption, retirement, and actual loss to the pro- 
 ducers of wealth of over 1418,000,000 of legal 
 tender and fractional currency, for no other pur- 
 pose than to make room for the national bank cur- 
 rency, thus giving the bondholders control of our 
 circulating medium, with power to iuflate or con- 
 tract it at pleasure, to fix values on our produce 
 and our homes — in short, to hold the destinies of 
 this country in their Iron grasp. We have already 
 paid the national banking corporations $1,800,000,- 
 000 for the special privilege of furnishing the cur- 
 rency for us, and yet no one Avill claim that it 
 serves the purpose of money better than the legal- 
 tender greenbacks that cost the people nothing; 
 yet the greenbacks were withdrawn and interest- 
 bearing bonds substituted — for what? — to create
 
 150 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 and sustain a i:»erpetual basis for national banks 
 and rob the people of thousands of dollars annu- 
 ally. Farmers and laborers, will you longer bow 
 down and worship this Juggernaut, or voluntarily 
 throw yourselves under its ponderous wheels, or 
 Btand idly by while it grinds out the last drop of 
 blood, the life of the nation? Every thinking 
 farmer and laborer feels that there is something 
 wrong, and unless we right these wrongs our 
 national liberty will be lost, and we go down 
 into history, like Greece and Rome, our column 
 broken."
 
 BANKING SYSTEM. 151 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 NATURAL RIGHTS COJfSIDERED (CONTINUED^ 
 FINANCE. — BANKING SYSTEM. 
 
 " O power of Greed clothed in Deception's garb .' 
 To drain the wealth that labor gives, 
 Assumes the Law's majestic form, 
 And on the toils of others lives." 
 
 The limited supply of gold and silver requires 
 the currency to be supplemented by credit. To 
 secure the benefits of credit to the money-deal- 
 ers, banks of issue are instituted. 
 
 Banks are chartered in order to furnish the 
 people with a public representative of value. If 
 this were their real purpose, such representative 
 of value should be issued and controlled by the 
 General Government, and in such volume as to 
 dispense with the necessity of credit. But credit 
 is a source of wealth to the money-dealers, and 
 banks are the machinery by which that credit is 
 utilized. M(;;ney is said to bear such and such a 
 rate of interest ; it is the obligation given for the 
 use of monoy that bears the interest ; the debtor 
 pays intei'ee-c on his debt, that is, he is compelled 
 to pay a petlalty for being a debtor, which goes to 
 the credit who receives a premium for the priv-
 
 152 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 ilege of taking from the debtor that which does 
 not belong to him. The secret of success of 
 banking consists in the debtor receiving interest 
 on his debts. The following, from the " American 
 Sentry," presents the matter clearly, thus : 
 
 " The ' Sentry ' briefly states the facts herein- 
 after mentioned, in order to bring them pointedly 
 before the minds of its readers, and earnestly asks 
 that each will carefully weigh their import in their 
 bearing upon the cause of equal justice to all, the 
 welfare of our people, and the perpetuity of our 
 republic. 
 
 " Bank notes when issued simply prove that the 
 corporation issuing them owes the holder thereof, 
 and is indebted to the amount represented by such 
 notes 
 
 " When a bank loans its notes and collects in- 
 terest therefor, it charges and receives interest on 
 what it owes. 
 
 " Laws that either directly or indirectly compel 
 the people to receive and use as money the evi- 
 dences of corporate indebtedness, for the benefit of 
 corporations, as in the case of national-bank-note 
 issues, are grossly despotic, oppressive, and wicked, 
 and are of necessity the deadly foes of the people's 
 rights. 
 
 "By authorizing banks to issue their notes for 
 use as money, and destroying the people's money — 
 greenbacks and other Treasury notes — to such an 
 extent that there was not enough of them left to 
 carry forward the business of the country. Congress 
 compels the people to have recourse to and use 
 bank notes as money, and by that cii umlocution 
 to pay interest to banks on what bank; re.
 
 BANKING SYSTEM. 153 
 
 " In order to more effectually force the masses 
 to take and use as money the bits of paper that 
 simply represent the debts of bank corporations, 
 and thus become the slaves of and pay tribute to 
 them, Congress, by a law printed upon the back of all 
 national bank notes, compels their acceptance ' for all 
 salaries and other debts and demands owing by the 
 United States to individuals, corporations, and as- 
 sociations within the United States, except interest 
 on j)ublic debt.' So, when government pays inter- 
 est to banks on the bonds they own, it cannot com- 
 pel them to receive their own notes in payment of 
 such interest, although the banks' notes are good 
 enough money for the payments by government of 
 all but the bondholders' claims. 
 
 " Monstrous and degrading as the fact is, the 
 American jjeople are tamely submitting to the com- 
 pulsory use by them as money of bits of paper that 
 are nothing but proofs of corporations' debts, and 
 for that privilege, if it can be called such, are cheer- 
 fully paying to national banks interest on what the 
 banks owe, as well as on the bonds they own. Do 
 the people realize that to enable corporations to 
 filch from them interest on their own debts. Congress 
 has prostituted its trust, and by law has made cor- 
 porations ' notes a legal tender for the payment of 
 debts and dues by the government, in order to force 
 the use of such notes as money? 
 
 "No wonder that these despotic corporations re- 
 gard a system that enables them to extort interest 
 on their debts from the people as ' the best bank- 
 ing system the world ever saw.' What despot 
 could ask for more or desire more willing, abject 
 slaves than the American people are to national 
 banks?" 
 
 7*
 
 154 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 But this is not ull. " Causes," says Kellogg, 
 " are felt to be in operation which the people can- 
 not comprehend — the changes in market value 
 of property and in the prices of labor are ac- 
 counted for by the abundance or scarcity of 
 money ; but why money is scarce at one time 
 and abundant at another is to the great body of 
 the people utterly unknown." 
 
 The business of the country is chiefly depend- 
 ent on comparatively a few individuals, vested 
 with power to issue bank notes. It is supposed 
 that banks are instituted for public use, and that 
 a large capital is required to operate them ; but 
 in the case of national banks, the capital in- 
 vested is capital already invested whose stocks 
 are at a liigh premium in the market; so these 
 bankers receive profits on their credits as well as 
 on their debts. 
 
 But they are allowed to issue more than 
 their capital invested. A privilege is granted 
 by the government to a corporation to issue 
 bank notes bearing no interest, and exchange 
 them for indorsed notes of the people bearing 
 interest ; and in this way operate largely on 
 a fictitious capital. A bank with a capital of 
 $50,000 issues |150,000 in bank notes, for which 
 interest is charged. At 7 ^jer cent, an annual 
 income of 7,000 would he realized upon a purely 
 fictitious capital.
 
 BANKING SYSTEM. 155 
 
 This method of supplying the people with 
 money is claimed to be both just and safe ! It is 
 not necessary to discuss the justice of such a 
 method. A currency that the government is in 
 duty bound to supply to the full requirements of 
 business and trade is scantily supplied by the 
 banks, which by the necessity of a medium of 
 exchange is made to take the place of money, 
 and a rate of interest charged above the net 
 profits of labor. It is not necessary to show by 
 this operation who are enriched and who are im- 
 poverished. 
 
 Before the national banking system was estab- 
 lished, banks were established by the authority 
 of State charters throughout all the States, in 
 some of which the wildest speculations were cai'- 
 ried on. In 1849 the Legislature of Connecticut 
 created a commission to report upon the banks 
 of that State. An extract of that report is here 
 presented. 
 
 " By the foregoing table it will be seen that the 
 average amount of specie held by the banks in the 
 State of Connecticut for twelve years was $178,719, 
 while the a^-erage amount of their loans to the 
 public during the same period was $11,069,457, 
 more than twenty-four and one-third times as much 
 money as the banks had specie. The annual inter- 
 est on $11,609,457 was $700,197. If they could 
 have loaned only their specie, the interest would 
 have amounted to but $28,723. The banks gained
 
 156 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 from the public annually, $071,444 above the inter- 
 est on their sjoecie, and in the twelve years |8,057,- 
 328. They collected this interest in advance, and 
 made their dividends half-yearly to their stock- 
 holders ; therefore it is proper to compound this in- 
 terest half-yearly, which would swell their gains to 
 nearly $12,000,000, that is to say, $1,000,000 inter- 
 est annually. These were actual gains, as much 
 realized by these banks as if they had produced and 
 sold $700,167 worth of agricultural products in 
 each year." — Kellogg'' s New Monetary System, p. 
 204. 
 
 It would be interesting to Inquire what the 
 people of Connecticut received in return for the 
 million dollars they paid to the banks. The nat- 
 ural rights of the people demand a volume of 
 money to meet all the requirements of industry 
 and trade, to go into circulation in obedience to 
 the demand for it in exchanging values, and a 
 tribute levied upon it is sheer robbery, no less 
 such because clothed in legal raiment. Thus 
 banks are institutions establislied by law for the 
 benefit of the few at the expense of the many, 
 vested in corporations to legalize robbery ! 
 
 The following, from the pen of T. A. Bland, 
 M. D., is very appropriate here : 
 
 "Banks are foes to justice and equality always. 
 They sent their coin to Europe or locked it in their 
 vaults just at the time the government most needed 
 it. They then suspended payment on their notes, 
 which of course caused them to depreciate rapidly.
 
 BANKING SYSTEM. 157 
 
 These deijreciated promises to pay were offered to 
 the government on a par basis, at six per cent in- 
 terest in limited amount. Secretary Chase soon 
 discovered that the banks were broken reeds. He 
 asked Congress to anthorize the issue of Treasury 
 notes. It was done. The bankers took the alarm. 
 This policy if continued would render the govern- 
 ment and the people independent of the banks. 
 The first issue of greenbacks, 860,000,000, were a 
 full legal tender. They were as good as coin. Then 
 the bankers formed an association, and apj^ointed a 
 committee of seventy-two leading bankei-s, and sent 
 them to Washington to advise Congress on the 
 subject of finances. Under the influences' of this 
 committee, Congress committed what Thaddeus 
 Stevens denounced as a crime against the Ameri- 
 can people. The greenback was demonetized. Of 
 course it depreciated. The next move was to get 
 Congress to pass a National Banking law, and to 
 authorize the sale of government bonds to raise 
 funds' to carry on the war. The bankers bought 
 the bonds with their own depreciated currency and 
 with depreciated greenbacks, dollar for dollar. 
 They then deposited these interest-bearing bonds 
 with the government, and got their face value in 
 currency printed and guaranteed by the govern- 
 ment. The banking ring was now intrenched in 
 the public treasury, with substantially absolute con- 
 trol of the finances of the country; hence, with 
 the power to rob the government and the people at 
 Avill. It still holds the fort, and so strong and rich 
 has it grown, that it controls both the Republican 
 and Democratic parties. It tramples freedom and 
 justice under its feet. It is the most stupendous, 
 the most arrogant, and the most oppressive monop- 
 oly ring that ever existed on this continent. It
 
 158 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 must be broken, and the power to issue and control 
 the currency restored to the people, or the repub- 
 lic will perish and liberty die." 
 
 The national banks, from a capital of 
 104,213, are able to loan 11,238,286,325. This 
 shows clearly the ability of the banks to do busi- 
 ness on other people's money and furnish a cir- 
 culating medium at the people's expense.
 
 TRANSPORTATION. 159 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONTINUED). — 
 TRANSPORTATION. 
 
 "All nature smiles in joy serene, 
 
 In freedom's lioly liglit, 
 But man's unholy love of power 
 
 Brings on the gloom of night. 
 Insatiate greed inspires his soul, 
 
 Insatiate lust his heart; 
 Unmeasured wealth by his control 
 
 Unmeasured powers impart." 
 
 Transportation and travel have become a 
 necessity in the present stage of civilization, and 
 the interests of society and the welfare of all in- 
 dustries and enterprises depend upon it. The 
 best modes and cheaj)est rates, together with the 
 ownership and control of operating all lines of 
 travel and transportation, are rights inherent in 
 the people. So extensive are these operations, 
 involving such a vast amount of capital, that in 
 the present selfish condition of society they can- 
 not be intrusted to private enterprise with safety 
 to the people. This we say in the light of facts 
 and experience. He must be a very obtuse ob- 
 server who does not see the ominous attitude of 
 railroad corporations, who derive all their privi-
 
 160 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 leges and means primarily from the people, and 
 seek to override them and prey upon them. To 
 the reflective observer, who sees this hostile atti- 
 tude and the inevitable conflict that is impending, 
 the subject must be of Intense interest. Through 
 the agency and manipulations of law, corpora- 
 tions arise, increase in power, and multiply in 
 numbers, until the capital associated and consol- 
 idated becomes an irresistible power ; lesser cap- 
 ital, operated by single individuals, yields to its 
 mighty sway, and in all the great enterprises 
 of manufacture, transportation, trade, and com- 
 merce, they rule with an iron hand and impe- 
 rious will. The most alarming feature of this 
 despotic domination Is the manner in which It is 
 done. Unlike the bandit chiefs and piratic 
 crews who seek Immunity by evading the law, 
 they seize upon the citadel of the law itself, or- 
 ganize their forces, and carry on their depreda- 
 tions under the form and In the name of the law 
 and the sanction of the government. This is 
 despotism. In the palmiest days of Italian brig- 
 andage, the people were not robbed so flagrant- 
 ly ; the dliference being their open hostility to 
 the law; but in our case, under the mask and 
 with the sanction of the law. " Of all the tri- 
 umphs of invention, none are more wonderful 
 than those by which the hard-earned gains of
 
 TEANSPOKTATIOX. 161 
 
 millions are forcibly conveyed to the vaults of 
 robber princes. No business Is more highly or- 
 ganized, more strenuously pursued, more success- 
 fully managed, than the business of robbery." 
 It Is, under all Its elaboration of method, more 
 than robbery. By the slow process of starvation 
 and premature death by overwork, It Is murder. 
 
 It Is by means of force evolved by heat, and 
 machinery for the reception and distribution of 
 that force, that such vast monopolies are carried 
 on. A ton of coal will evolve a power greater 
 than the combined force of a hundred men. The 
 machinery to operate that force and the coal are 
 not so expensive as a hundred men, and the dif- 
 ference Is In favor of the capitalist. While It 
 consumes comparatively little, It pi'oduces com- 
 paratively much. This double advantage Is in 
 favor of corporate capital; and thus cheap power 
 and labor-saving machinery, by monopolizing the 
 expansive power of heat and the advantage of 
 mechanical contrivances, which are natural forces 
 and advantages, and iv.jjrefore the equal heritage 
 of all, corporations, by tlu c sanction and through 
 the instrumentality of laiv, gather Immense 
 wealth, which Is really and ji^^tly the people's 
 wealth because they produced It. 
 
 In this way that which siiould be a blessing 
 for all is converted into a curse, controlling the 
 
 /
 
 162 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 market values of commodities by charging ex- 
 tortionate rates for freight, of labor by diminish- 
 ing the demand for it, and the market prices, 
 and thus stagnating industry and reducing the 
 value of land, or rather appropriating its value 
 by appropriating an undue share of its produc- 
 tions. If land will produce a ton of wheat to 
 the acre, and freight is charged four dollars a ton 
 when two is all it costs, then two dollars an acre 
 are unjustly appropriated as often as this is done. 
 
 And what is the remedy? Let the people fur- 
 nish their own means for transportation. Let 
 the government issue, say 1250,000,000 of 
 money, a full legal tender for all debts public 
 and private, and with it build a railroad along- 
 side of the main trunks of the corporation 
 lines. What would be the result ? First, it 
 would swell the volume of currency, and thus 
 stimulate industry; second, it would furnish em- 
 ployment for at least a hundred thousand men 
 and relieve the pressure of the labor market; 
 third, it would add |250.j]'!/0,000 to the national 
 wealth ; and fourth}, J t would bring these 
 haughty tyrants to feheir'senses, and show them 
 that there is a ^/ower before which they must 
 yield unconditionally. 
 
 By such means an enterj[>cise compared to 
 which this would be a meri* by-play was carried
 
 TRANSPORTATION. 163 
 
 on. More than two millions of soldiers were 
 equipped, trained, subsisted, and transported at 
 an expense that would have built every mile of 
 railroad in the country, and contemplated to be 
 built for the next ten years, by the people's 
 money. 
 
 While this measure would afford an effectual 
 remedy it would do injustice to none. A true 
 republic is a co-operative system in which each 
 citizen is a stockholder and all are entitled to 
 equal benefits ; but as it is, the few gather in 
 the wealth and the people who produce it are 
 impoverished by law. Corporate power granted 
 to individuals is so much of the people's power 
 taken from them : not for the people's good, as 
 they have been led to believe, but to accumulate 
 wealth to override the people and reduce them 
 to a subordinate condition. Let that corporation 
 extend to all; let the wealth be held and enjoyed 
 by those who produce it. As poverty is removed 
 the people are lifted up, made more virtuous, in- 
 telligent, and happy. They require more than 
 food, raiment, and shelter. They require higher 
 development, and time and means for it. They 
 require all the elevating and purifying influences 
 of ajsthetic culture — in a word, to be fully de- 
 veloped, intellectually, morally, aesthetically, and 
 spiritually. In our great centers of civilization
 
 164 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 all the extremes of life exist. It is not necessaiy 
 to visit London, or Paris, or even Siberia, to wit- 
 ness scenes of poverty and distress. In our cities, 
 manufacturing districts, and mining localities, are 
 to be found selfishness, crime and cruelty, wealth 
 and wretchedness, pride and poverty. Neither 
 need we go to the isles of the sea for exhibitions 
 of savagism, barbaric ignorance, and enslaving 
 superstition. The soul is sickened at the con- 
 templation of so much misery and degradation 
 where there might be such happiness and pros- 
 perity, so much good where there is so much 
 evil. The great purposes of life are overlooked 
 and lost sight of, and the few sacrifice the many 
 upon the altar of Mammon. This is accomplished 
 through the usurpation of human rights and the 
 monopoly of capital. By the magic of intelli- 
 gence, powers are evoked that have transformed 
 the face of the civilized world — powers that 
 speed the ^'I'oduction of wealth far beyond the 
 dreams of the optimist. One more achievement 
 is due and indispensable to the onward march of 
 civilization, and that is the relegation of this power 
 to the control of the people. 
 
 The first was achieved in the domain of phys- 
 ical science, the second must be in the domain 
 of mental science ; the one through the agency of 
 physical mechanism, the other must come through
 
 TRANSPORTATION. 165 
 
 the machineiy of government. This Is the great 
 problem of the age — the utilization of all the 
 natural means of wealth for all the people of a 
 country — this is popular government, equality, 
 justice, fraternity. It demands the full recog- 
 nition of the humblest and most obscure citizen ; 
 it demands justice to all. It requires of each the 
 development and culture of all to their highest 
 capacity. Then justice would be established, 
 tranquillity insured, tlie common defense pro- 
 vided for, the general welfare j^romoted, and 
 the blessings of liberty secured to all, and de- 
 scend as the richest and noblest heritage to pos- 
 terity. 
 
 Let those who love justice, their fellow-men, 
 and their country be reminded of their duties ; 
 let them aim at and labor to accomplish this 
 greatest, highest, noblest destiny of man. For 
 this the patriot fathers struggled and bled and 
 poured out their most precious treasures. For 
 this the down-trodden millions hope and yearn 
 and pray. For this the noble heroes of the Old 
 World are sacrificing life and treasure. 
 
 Tlie theme of the poet, the dream of the hu- 
 manitarian, peace, harmony, prosperity, happi- 
 ness — these the full fruition of liberty, justice, 
 equality. Justice and freedom for all — TnE 
 New Republic.
 
 166 THE Nlijy REPUBLIC. 
 
 This government is not a republic. It is a 
 government of landlords and tenants, of million- 
 aires and paupers, of masters and slaves. It is 
 a government of golden splendor, of pomp and 
 display, and of miserable obscurity ; of purple 
 and fine linen, and debasing rags ; of crime and 
 misery in high places, and misery and crime in 
 low places; with prisons filled and lunatic asy- 
 lums overflowing, crime, insanity, and suicide in- 
 creasing, drunkenness and debauchery sapping 
 the fountain of moral purity, and threatening the 
 overthrow of society and domestic institutions ; — 
 these are the inevitable results of inordinate wealth 
 in the hands of the few. 
 
 And the people, with the ballot in their hands, 
 suffer such things to be ! 
 
 It may be objected that the people, or at least 
 a great portion of them, are comparatively free 
 and independent. Grant this. The vital ques- 
 tion is not what we are, but whither are we 
 tending. Twenty years ago our millionaires 
 could be counted not to exceed a score. To-day 
 their enumeration would carry us into thousands. 
 Since the new system of robbery has been per- 
 fected, half a million of people have come into 
 the possession and control of more wealth than 
 the balance of the entire nation. In other words, 
 two per cent of the population hold and control
 
 TRANSPORTATION. 167 
 
 more wealth than the remaining ninety-eight per 
 cent, and tlie ratio of disproportion is increasing. 
 It is the te7ide7icy to (ihsolute despotism that gives 
 character and importance to this subject. 
 
 This is the result of corporate power. A cor- 
 poration is a " body politic," organized for the 
 purpose of exercising certain powers not exercis- 
 able by individuals or voluntary associations ; a 
 legal entity separate from personal entity, exer- 
 cising such powers as interfere with and override 
 natural rights. It is a petty kingdom, endowed 
 with perpetuity, created by law for its own ag- 
 grandizement : a usurpation of power for the 
 benefit of the few at the expense of the many. 
 They increase and multiply all over the land, ab- 
 sorbing and controlling all the elements of politi- 
 cal power, whereby the well-being of the people 
 is involved. These combine, confederate, and 
 by utilizing labor-saving machinery in the pro- 
 duction and transportation of wealth, raise up a 
 corporate empire, ruling with an iron hand the 
 toiling, struggling masses of the impoverished 
 and enslaved multitude. 
 
 And this is our " republic " ! What mockery ! 
 
 "Why do not the people rise in their might and 
 hurl with contempt and loathing such despotism 
 from its usurped power, and assert their rights as 
 freemen ?
 
 168 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 NATURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONTINUED). — 
 COMMUNICATION. 
 
 " Science is a child as yet, 
 
 But her power ami scope shall grow, 
 And her secrets, in the future. 
 
 Shall diminish toil and woe ; 
 Shall increase the bounds of pleasure, 
 
 "With an ever-widening ken, 
 And the woods and wildernesses 
 
 Make the homes of happy men." 
 
 A LITTLE more than forty years ago the first 
 line of telegraphic communication was set in 
 operation between Baltimore and Washington. 
 Since then such lines have formed a network of 
 communication throughout the civilized world, 
 and connected continents thousands of miles 
 apart. 
 
 The means by which these grand results are 
 accomplished have been wrought out by the 
 busy brain of the scientist, from the great store- 
 house of Nature, evoked from her hidden and 
 hitherto mysterious recesses. 
 
 The value to mankind of the application of the 
 electro-magnet in telegraphy is beyond all com- 
 putation. As civilization advances, its necessities
 
 COMMUNICATION. 169 
 
 increase, so that rapid and extended communica- 
 tion becomes indispensable. 
 
 This value belongs to all alike. The force by 
 which this needful work is accomplished is given 
 by the Creator. He has made it necessary to the 
 higher and more advanced condition in the moral, 
 intellectual, social, and political world, and given 
 to his creatures the capacity to develop and 
 appropriate it to their use. 
 
 This God-given means, this inestimable value, 
 this imperative necessity in advancing civilization, 
 is appropriated by corporate power, and con- 
 trolled and used for corporate benefit, not only 
 compelling exorbitant rates for its service to the 
 many, but controlling intelligence, thereby direct- 
 ing national affairs and monopolizing the interests 
 of all. 
 
 By it political movements are conducted, con- 
 ventions manipulated, nominations dictated, and 
 elections carried. By it the markets are regulated 
 in the interests of capitalists, and prices deter- 
 mined. In short, it controls the political, financial, 
 and industrial interests of the country. 
 
 And yet these arrogant usurpers have the 
 effrontery to set themselves up as the benefactors 
 of the land. They declare that these beneficent 
 enterprises could not be carried on without their 
 aid ; that nil the intelligence and enterprise is 
 8
 
 170 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 confined to their narrow limits ; tliat the people 
 are incapable of conducting great enterprises, and 
 should be grateful for their arduous and self- 
 sacrificing efforts to extend the blessings of — 
 monopoly. Moreover, they contend that those 
 who take the woi"ld are entitled to it. They say 
 the race is fair and open to all, and those who 
 win are the heroes, and entitled to the spoils 
 of their victory. It is by such sophistries as 
 these, thrust upon the people by a subsidized 
 press, and silenced by a refusal to give room for 
 a discussion of the subject, that this illusion is 
 kept up. 
 
 Now what are the facts? To begin with, our 
 government is based upon the doctrine of vested 
 powers and kingly prerogatives. The race is 7iot 
 open and fair. These usurpers are endowed by 
 the government with rights and privileges not 
 accorded to the people. The aristocratic party 
 did this in fastening upon the people a govern- 
 ment to all intents and purposes English in its 
 character and tendency, and managed to get 
 themselves elected so as to set it in operation under 
 its newly prescribed form, with the name of a re- 
 public, but the nature of an oligarchy. With these 
 advantages to start with, they have sought in 
 every way to improve them. With a land-tenure 
 system that secures millions of acres to single in-
 
 COMMUNICATION. 171 
 
 dividuals, the domain of the country is rapidly 
 going into few liands. The power of this mo- 
 nopoly is incalculable, but in consequence of the 
 sparseness of the population, not yet fully de- 
 veloped. With a financial system based on the 
 " precious metals," and conducted by banking 
 corporations, untold millions wei'e accumulated 
 by the few. With kingly prerogatives granted 
 to the chief executive, a political patronage was 
 secured that gave dominance to the spirit of 
 party, by which these advantages could be util- 
 ized. With a judiciary system by which all their 
 claims are supported and protected, and the very 
 class of men by whose efforts this system was 
 inaugurated and set in operation were installed 
 into office ; and with ceaseless vigilance preserved 
 that order of things by false pretenses, chicanery, 
 political machinery, bribery, and fraud. The 
 results are, as we see, the illimitable blessings of 
 science and art monopolized and appropriated 
 through government functions, by those clothed 
 in government authority, usurped and exercised 
 through the instrumentality of an ambitious and 
 tyrannical aristocracy ! 
 
 Public benefactors ! The following extract, 
 over the nom de plume ''Asthoreth," sets forth 
 in vigorous language the " benefits " claimed by 
 these immaculate impostors :
 
 172 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 " They have refused to pass laws the most whole- 
 some and necessary for the jiviblic good. 
 
 " They have obstructed the administration of 
 justice to such an extent that it is impossible to 
 convict a rich man of a crime, and - equally impos- 
 sible to enforce the rights of a poor man. 
 
 " They have made judges dependent upon their 
 will for election to and retention in office. 
 
 " They have created a multitude of new offices, 
 and set over us swarms of officers to harass our 
 2>eople and eat our substance. 
 
 " They have endeavored to prevent the popula- 
 tion of these States by monopolizing land, labor, and 
 money to such an extent as to reduce us to the po- 
 sition of starving slaves. 
 
 '• They kee]) among us in time of peace standing 
 armies of police and military, whose establishment 
 is supported by decrees of bribed and intimidated 
 legislatures. 
 
 "They have set up a monetary system, based not 
 upon the time and service of labor, but upon ficti- 
 tious values set by themselves upon unproductive 
 elements, and have forced us by inhuman laws to 
 receive this medium in payment of our toil. 
 
 " They have created and fostered an immense and 
 iniquitous machinery of courts and senates, ethron- 
 ing as its triumvirate of tyranical rulers, debt, 
 profit, and interest, and have used these agencies to 
 crush out the life-bloodof our people, 
 
 " They have possessed themselves of the land, 
 and as far as possible they control all other elements 
 of natural wealth, excluding the laborer from the 
 ownership or use thereof. 
 
 " They have seized upon the machinery and 
 working tools of our people, and have thus offered 
 them no other condition of being in life save that 
 of toiling slavery.
 
 COMMUNICATION. 173 
 
 " They have fostered among us degrading and 
 immoral literature, and have provided brutal and 
 cruel amusements and maintain and protect every- 
 where among us establishments where poisonous, 
 brutalizing, and intoxicating beverages are practi- 
 cally forced upon our people — all with a purpose of 
 degrading our moral, mental, and physical natures 
 to the level of the unthinking, degraded, and un- 
 complaining slave. 
 
 " They have corrujited the sources of public in- 
 telligence ; they have been and are inculcating 
 false ideas to our children in the common schools. 
 
 " They have endeavored to disunite us, and set 
 brother against brother and child against parent, 
 by religious, political, and sectional prejudices. 
 
 " They have imposed upon us prisons, almshouses, 
 and insane asylums ; they have compounded crimes, 
 and openly flaunted guilt in the faces of the people. 
 
 "They have driven our sons to theft and oar 
 daughters to prostitution. 
 
 " They have invaded our riglits of free assem- 
 blage and free speech by armed force, and have 
 dispersed the peaceable meetings of our people. 
 
 " They have, when our people have assembled to 
 demand their just rights given by Nature's God, 
 fired upon and killed them, both men and women 
 and little children." 
 
 The power by which these tyrannies and op- 
 pressions are carried on ARE legal POWERS, 
 and are hy the authority of the government, and 
 will so continue as long as our present form of 
 government continues. As long as the cause 
 continues the effects will remain. 
 
 The country has developed and improved
 
 17-1 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 somewhat under this monopoly, hut not the gov- 
 ernment, nor by its provisions. It would be 
 impossible in the nature of things for some im- 
 provement not to have been made. But under 
 a just system of government the results would 
 have been infinitely greater, which, in another 
 chapter, will be considered. 
 
 At present, telegraphic communication is mo- 
 nopolized by one man. He is supreme in the 
 exercise of this power. All bow before this 
 mighty chief. He speaks through the press : 
 the tone of public sentiment is changed. Stocks 
 go up or down at his bidding, and trade and 
 commerce acknowledge the supremacy of his 
 power. 
 
 What an illimitible blessing this would be to 
 the people if they could utilize it! This man 
 who holds and controls it, and realizing a net 
 profit of six millions annually from it, did not 
 originate it, did not build and does not support 
 nor operate it, but appropriates it and exercises 
 the powers it confers in perverting their true use. 
 Thus a power that would infinitely bless the peo- 
 ple is made the means to curse them, to deceive 
 and mislead by manufacturing intelligence or 
 suppressing it. 
 
 And what is the remedy ? It is already an- 
 ticipated. Incorporate it into the postal system,
 
 COMMUNICATION. 175 
 
 and conduct it in the interest of the whole peo- 
 ple. The I'eal cost of telegraphy is small. Mes- 
 sages could be sent at one-fifth the cost now 
 charged, and would form the most valuable part 
 of the postal service. 
 
 The force is an element of nature, the machin- 
 ery is the -product of man's skill and labor. Why 
 should one man, whose natural rights are no moi'e 
 nor better than those of another, and who had no 
 hand in the scientific discovery, the mechanical 
 contrivances, nor the labor of putting the ma- 
 chinery in working order, not only reap the 
 entire profits of telegraphy, but use it to oj)- 
 press and subjugate the people ?
 
 176 THE NEW KEPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 NArURAL RIGHTS CONSIDERED (CONCLUDED). — > 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 "Wisdom is the princii^al thicg, therefore get wisdom; 
 and with all thy getting, get understanding." — Proverbs. 
 
 Like all other institutions, those of an educa- 
 tional character carry with them the traits and 
 characteristics stamped upon them by the age in 
 which they originated. Until within a compar- 
 atively modern period education was regarded as 
 an accomplishment. Labor was the inevitable 
 lot of the great mass of the people. Under 
 monarchical governments this was the necessary 
 consequence. Under a more liberal government 
 education became more popular ; but still it was 
 regarded as an accomplishment. 
 
 As long as the lower classes, under the super- 
 vision of overseers, produced the wealth, the 
 higher classes had no disj)osition to apply their 
 educational acquirements to such purposes. But 
 in a republican government, where all are equal 
 in their political status, where all are supposed 
 to provide for their own wants, where social re- 
 lations require equal social qualifications, where
 
 EDUCATION. 177 
 
 duties as citizens are required of all, education 
 must become universal ; and as its benefits must 
 extend to all, so it must be supported by all. 
 
 Of late years this idea has become quite uni- 
 versal, and the people are expecting great results 
 from our system of free schools. But if we look 
 back for the last twenty years, in which our pub- 
 lic schools have flourished best, what do we see ? 
 A greater change from the simplicity of our 
 early republican principles toward aristocratic 
 rule has taken place during that time than in all 
 the time before. Can we say that this change 
 has been in spite of our public schools? This 
 would not be true. They have aided in this 
 change. All who have been and are conspicuous 
 in building up monopoly, in legislating, in the 
 strife for political power, in the establishment of 
 corporate monopoly — all of these have been and 
 are the most highly educated. Their acquire- 
 ments have aided them, qualified them for this 
 work. 
 
 The tendency of education is away from pro- 
 ductive vocations. As a rule, the youth who 
 graduates from a grammar or a high school 
 feels himself above the condition of a laborer 
 and seeks some elegant (?) employment. While 
 the uneducated man or woman feels a depend- 
 ence on manual labor, the educated man or 
 8*
 
 178 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 woman thinks only of some professional or gen- 
 teel vocation. 
 
 Class distinctions are encouraged, labor is de- 
 graded, the professions are overrun, and poverty 
 increased. This is not all. The evils of our 
 present system are both positive and negative : 
 positive, because the knowledge acquired is 
 mostly impracticable and useless, occupying the 
 time the most jjrecious in life, a period that can- 
 not be compensated for, an outlay of labor and 
 expense that cannot be recalled, for the knowl- 
 edge, most of which is forgotten in after years, 
 cannot be used, and therefore drops out like dead 
 matter; negative, because practical and useful 
 knowledge is neglected and lost, and the mind, 
 by improper training, loses its vigor and power 
 of thought and reasoning, to say nothing of the 
 errors and false notions that come from most of 
 the existln<y institutions of learnino;. 
 
 Due qualification for citizenship is necessary 
 for the existence and maintenance of a true re- 
 public. Intelligence and virtue are its essentials 
 — intelligence to comprehend the principles upon 
 which it is founded, and virtue to appreciate the 
 natural rights upon which it is based. Intelli- 
 gence to comprehend the relation of cause and 
 effect, to realize the condition of mind arising 
 from false teaching and prevailing errors, and
 
 EDUCATION. 179 
 
 the effect of exciting causes which constant ac- 
 tivity unconsciously develops, and traits of char- 
 acter which greatly modify individuals and even 
 nations; and virtue that inspires that moral sense 
 that will not tolerate wrong, such love and ven- 
 eration for justice as regards every violation of it 
 as a sacrilege. 
 
 Of the former, are the blind acceptance of 
 opinions long cherished, Avithout examination or 
 reason, or the strong adherence to them in spite 
 of i-eason, and the rejection of new ideas without 
 examination or reason. Of the latter, blind ad- 
 herence to party, and clanish spirit, pride, intol- 
 erance, and arrogance. 
 
 A little reflection will show how difficult it is 
 for communities or even individuals to change 
 their opinions. Indeed, it is difficult, for just 
 when to change opinion is the test of wisdom. 
 
 That we must change our opinions sometime 
 is evident from the fact that nothing in nature is 
 at a stand-still. AYe are carried onward by the 
 law of progress, and must conform to its change- 
 ful conditions. 
 
 It is curious and interesting to study the ad- 
 vance of great ideas in the past. Sensuous 
 perception for ages limited the intellectnal pow- 
 ers of man. If a great genius, like Pythagores, 
 penetrated the veil of sensuous perception and
 
 180 THE NEW KEPUBUC. 
 
 proclaimed the deeper phenomena of nature, as 
 in the motion of the phmets, it was silenced by 
 the sensuous perception of the Ptolemaic theory 
 for a thousand years. The Apparent veiled the 
 Keal. Even the clear and forcible reasoning of 
 Copernicus availed nothing. The Real disclosed 
 by the laws of Galileo banished the Apparent, and 
 gave the world a deeper insight into the great 
 arcana of nature. The deeper comprehension of 
 Columbus in penetrating the veil of the Appar- 
 ent went for naught ; only visions of possible 
 wealth and dominion, coupled with woman's in- 
 herent faith and trust in man, triumpeed over 
 sensuous perception. 
 
 It is humiliating and surprising when we look 
 back and discover how long we have been beat- 
 ino; ajTainst a Q-rand idea without seeing it. So 
 simple a thing as the art of printing was on the 
 point of being discovered for a thousand years. 
 The invention of the telescope was a mere acci- 
 dent ; and the phenomena that led to the dis- 
 covery of steam in its application as a motive 
 power were familiar for thousands of years. 
 Professor Morse was ridiculed when he applied 
 to Congress for a small appropriation to enable 
 him to put in operation his simple plan of teleg- 
 raphy. 
 
 And we are now, undoubtedly looking at ideas
 
 EDUCATION. 181 
 
 as grand as any yet utilized without seeing them. 
 Heat as a motor, electricity as a subtile agent in 
 disturbing static conditions, chemical action in 
 composing and disolving forms of matter — these 
 jjlienomena have been familiar to man, coeral 
 with his very existence, yet how recent it is that 
 he has made them factors in working out the 
 great problems of life ! 
 
 Here is a lesson in this history of the past, 
 and it is time we should have learned it ; namely, 
 other ideas as productive of human welfare, 
 though in other fields of research, are waiting the 
 magic touch of human genius to invoke their 
 DOwers for human weal, thus complementing the 
 domain of research, and rounding out and devel- 
 oping the many-sided phases of human activities. 
 
 It is a well-known fact that physical science 
 has far outstripped the more intricate departments 
 of mental science. Mechanics in its application 
 to machinery, enginery, military operations, man- 
 ufactories, and chemical appliances are far in ad- 
 vance of political, social, and ethical sciences ; and 
 it is in these fields of research that attention is 
 being directed. In political science, the advance 
 has been slow, labored, and uncertain. 
 
 The earlier wi*itei's, misled by sensuous per- 
 ception, looking only on the surface of things, 
 taking effects for causes, laid down their theories ;
 
 182 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 and subsequent writers have accepted them with- 
 out due examination, and sometimes without even 
 question. 
 
 Tims we see liow difficult it is to uproot old 
 ideas and long-established opinions. This is the 
 work of education, and yet education has been 
 and is now a pi'ominent factor in perpetuating 
 the existinii; condition of things. 
 
 The intelligence to comprehend the condition 
 of the present, and a realization of the difficulty 
 in removing the errors of past and present teach- 
 ings, are essential requisites. This condition and 
 these traits being understood, the real work of 
 educational reform will then commence. The 
 laws of mental action, in development and cul- 
 ture, which have unconsciously estabHshed the 
 existing conditions, have not been fully recog- 
 nized and understood. 
 
 The fundamental law by which all educational 
 processes are carried on may be briefly stated — 
 exercise is the law of development. Any cause 
 that excites the activity of a power or faculty 
 invigorates, itensifies, and develops that power or 
 faculty within the limits of its nutrition. The 
 truth of this proposition is more tersely expressed 
 in the adage, "Practice makes perfect." This 
 law determines all character and the Jormatlon 
 of all character. The child born of German
 
 EDUCATION. 183 
 
 parents and reared in an American home, sur- 
 rounded by American influences, loses its German 
 characteristics and becomes Americanized, and 
 in one or two generations anew cast of character 
 takes the place of the old one. In improving 
 domestic animals the same law prevails ; certain 
 qualities of the horse or the dog most desirable 
 to be developed are carefully and judiciously 
 exercised. So permanently do these traits be- 
 come fixed that tliey are transmitted by inheri- 
 tance. The operation of this law is seen even in 
 the vegetable kingdom. Thus fruits, cereals, and 
 flowers are cultivated to a high degree of per- 
 fection. 
 
 In the higher and more complicated structures 
 this law* operates with most effect ; and in the 
 human type it displays its greatest powers. It is 
 by this law that national characteristics are pro- 
 duced and preserved. Even new characteristics 
 might be evoked from the plastic mind if a new 
 influence were to act persistently and for a suffi- 
 cient length of time. Sailors can discern and 
 distinguish vessels that a landsman cannot see ; 
 the accountant runs np his columns and sets 
 down his results with astonishing rapidity and 
 ease ; tlie pianist sweeps the chords of his instru- 
 ment, evoking a flood of harmony, while the voice 
 pours forth a melody in perfect unison with it.
 
 184 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 This is the great underlvino; law of all activities 
 — the developing power. 
 
 We are now prepared to make the application 
 of this law in the formation of our national char- 
 acter. Tiie inordinate love of money made val- 
 uable by the device of law and the necessities of 
 exchange above all commodities, and by its scar- 
 city that value increased — this love so excited and 
 constantly acting on the mind has developed ava- 
 rice as the national characteristic. Let us for a 
 moment contemplate the value of money over and 
 above all transferable things, so made by law. 
 The value of a fortune can be expressed on a bit 
 of paper and carried in the vest pocket. It will 
 command anything in the market at any time or 
 place within the jurisdiction of the government 
 creating it. It commands time, opportunity, ease, 
 pleasure ; its possessor may command power, 
 dominion, honor, and position. It is the magic 
 wand that transforms the slave into the master, 
 the pauper into the millionaire ; it converts hov- 
 els into palaces and serfs into lords. It wipes out 
 the stain of dishonor and shields the criminal 
 from justice. 
 
 Nothing else can vie with it, nothing can com- 
 pare with it, nothing so good in the estimation of 
 its votaries — and who are not its votaries ? This 
 love, excited by such vast, varied, and mighty
 
 EDUCATION. 185 
 
 powers, has burned with incessant intensity in 
 the hearts of the people for ages. Is it any 
 wonder, then, that it is developed into uncon- 
 trollable avarice ? There is no passion or am- 
 bition it cannot satisfy, no elevation that its 
 possessor cannot reach — passion that degrades 
 and brutalizes, ambition that transforms the man 
 into the demon. "The love of money," said Paul, 
 " is the root of all evil." Avarice is a moral 
 poison, a passion that overrides and crushes out 
 the finer sensibilities and nobler emotions of the 
 soul. It is the perversion of a faculty necessary 
 in the economy of life as a means and subject to 
 control, but a cruel tyrant, a relentless, grasping, 
 devouring monster, when it gains the mastery. 
 
 Thus the nation has been educated. The 
 phrase " almighty dollar " is as familiar as a 
 household word. Thus wealth has become an 
 object of worship. Thus every man's hand is 
 turned against his fellow in its tireless pursuit. 
 
 The great struggle of life is for money. The 
 high and the low, the rich and the poor, long for 
 it, yearn for it, pray for it, fight for it, toil for it, 
 sacrifice love, virtue, honor, health, happiness, 
 and life for it. It has made truthful in the esti- 
 mation of men the parody of the wise man's say- 
 ing, "Money is the principal thing, therefore get 
 money ; and with all thy getting, get money." 
 Get it honestly if you can, but — get it.
 
 186 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 The spirit of avarice rules the nation. It is 
 the great educator of the people, and well has it 
 done its work. Inspired by it, fraud, theft, 
 robbery, and murder reign supreme, and in 
 the form of corporate power prey upon the peo- 
 ple's wealth and trample upon their liberties. 
 Usurping their rights, it has arrayed its forces 
 and organized its schemes in national banks, in 
 stocks and rings, in transjiortation corporations, 
 in telegraph and insurance companies, manufac- 
 turing establishments, mining enterprises, raayket 
 and commercial exchanges, and every business 
 and industry in which capital can rob and en- 
 slave labor. It has poisoned the " milk of human 
 kindness " and embittered the cup of joy ; the 
 purest bosom has felt its glow, and the softest 
 cheek its feverish breath. 
 
 It enters every department of life ; all feel its 
 withering touch. It has desolated the homes of 
 millions, and driven their inmates into the streets, 
 into the poor-house, into the Potter's Field. The 
 toilers in the workshop, in the field, on land and 
 sea, and in the bowels of the earth are made to 
 bow their heads at its command. Tramps plod 
 their way in hunger and rags, and paupers take 
 their meager sustenance from the tribute of their 
 less unfortunate fellow-creatures. 
 
 To the wealthy, this tyrant is scarcely more
 
 EDUCATION. 187 
 
 lenient. Victors and victims alike fall a prey to 
 his insatiate greed ; the one class, moral paupers, 
 stripped of their manhood, honor, love, virtue, 
 benevolence ; all humanly qualities gone, greed 
 hardens their hearts and steels them against the 
 finer and nobler emotions of the soul, thus fitting 
 them for the doom pronounced upon them by the 
 gentle Nazarene : " It is easier for a camel to go 
 through the eye of a needle than for a rich man 
 to enter the kingdom of heaven." 
 
 The other class are the victims of greed, poverty 
 and wretchedness, suffering and sorrow, toil and 
 weariness, ignorance and obscurity. Thus, all 
 the fruits of avarice are evil, and the people of 
 all classes suffer from it. 
 
 The true teacher has not yet come. We long 
 and pray for his advent. When he comes, we 
 will look back with astonishment at the ignorance 
 and superstition that prevailed, and the stolid in- 
 difference of the people at the cause of so much 
 misery and selfishness, and congratulate ourselves 
 that they have disappeared in the sunshine of an 
 enlightened age. 
 
 He will come in the garb of science — political 
 science. He will unfold the true principles of 
 money. He will divest it of its overmastering 
 eharm. He will make it the servant of industry, 
 " the tool of trade." He will dethrone it, and
 
 188 THE KEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 teach its true use. Pie will teach and enforce the 
 law of justice ; from it will come equality; from 
 equality, liberty ; from liberty, fraternity ; from 
 fraternity, peace, harmony, prosperity. The true 
 aims of life will be recognized, and education will 
 develop, culture, and harmonize the individual to 
 his full capacity. Such individuals will consti- 
 tute the aggregate ; and as the units are so Avill 
 the aggregate be. 
 
 Avarice and his brazen imp. Monopoly, will 
 tlisappear, and the forces that are now employed 
 in impoverishing and enslaving the people will 
 serve to establish their equality and secure their 
 liberty. 
 
 Not comprehending the cause of the greed and 
 selfishness of man, his wickedness and crimes, it 
 was ascribed to the disobedience of our first pa- 
 rents ; but mankind are just as good as they can 
 be under the circumstances. Let the developing 
 influences and refining processes of education call 
 out the higher and better elements of our nature ; 
 then we would have vastly better conditions. 
 
 And this is the mission of true education. 
 Mere instruction forms but a small part of it ; 
 that will come with development and culture. 
 Looking to the qualification for citizenship, to a 
 comprehension of the principles of political sci- 
 ence and their relation to human rights, to the
 
 EDUCATION. 189 
 
 structure of government, its ])urposes and objects, 
 its legislative and executive powers, qualification 
 for the elective franchise and the proper mode of 
 its exercise, the distribution of its wealth and en- 
 joyment of the natural means of wealth ; in the 
 regulation of all its industries, public and private, 
 in transportation and travel, in lines of communi- 
 cation for intelligence, in trade and commerce, in 
 providing for its revenue, in all its industries; in 
 its sanitary regulations, in the care and protection 
 of its moral interests, in its protection against 
 crime and the treatment of its criminals, in its 
 social requirements, in its educational depart- 
 ment — scientific, philosophical, literary, and aes- 
 thetic — and other things pertaining to a people's 
 government, it will make adequate provisions. 
 In other words, it will secure the full, true, many- 
 sided })hases of human character, fully rounded 
 out and completed 
 
 Education means unfoldment, growth, develop- 
 ment, culture, the power of appreciation, judg- 
 ment, original thought, and self-reliant action. 
 It means the use of all the appliances that con- 
 tribute to the fullest unfoldment of all the pow- 
 ers and faculties of the human being ; not only 
 to use and enjoy, but to control and direct. To 
 the vigor of the mind; to the harmony of the 
 social relations ; to the happiness of domestic
 
 190 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 life; to the production and distribution of wealth ; 
 to the culture of taste and refinement by the ex- 
 alting and ennobling Influences of the fine arts, 
 music, painting, sculpture ; — this is the mission, 
 these the true aims and purposes, of education. 
 
 But long-established customs and settled oj^in- 
 ions, the wrong and pernicious influences that 
 predominate and result in the undue develop- 
 ment of the selfish propensities, the evils and 
 defects arising from false notions and methods of 
 education, render it extremely diflScult to insti- 
 tute measures that will result in the greatest 
 good to the greatest number. And this is the 
 highest interest of the people, and to secure 
 these results their imperative duty. 
 
 Experience has shown tliat " mankind are 
 more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable 
 than to right themselves by abolishing the forms 
 to which they are accustomed." This goes to 
 show how diflScult it is to effect reforms. 
 
 When Ave comprehend the causes that have 
 brought into existence the present conditions, 
 and not till tiien, will we be ready not only to re- 
 move them, but we will likewise have the ability 
 to do it. Correct thought must i^recede correct 
 action. Opinion rules the actions of men. 
 
 When the Jersey City freight-handlers struck 
 for three cents an hour additional, they gave
 
 EDUCATION. 191 
 
 away tlie whole question involved In the labor 
 problem, and resolved it into the one of, What 
 shall the wages be ? They admitted the right 
 to hold them in the bonds of wage-service, and 
 while that opinion prevails there is no hope of 
 emancipation from the greed of capital. So long 
 as men are satisfied to surrender their natural 
 rights for a mere pittance and their dignity as 
 men, thus conceding the right of capital to con- 
 trol labor, barter their liberties, and sacrifice 
 tlieir manhood for a price, we may be sure of a 
 continuation of slavery without mitigation or 
 relief. 
 
 So long as the cultivators of the soil only 
 demand less rents as a measure of reform, they 
 ignore the very question involved in the reform, 
 and may be sure of the continuance of the rela- 
 tion of landlords and tenants, lords and serfs. 
 So long as the wealth-producer believes that 
 money possesses intrinsic value based on its con- 
 vertibility into gold and silver, so long will he 
 be cursed and impoverished by the unjust dis- 
 tribution of wealth, and be willing to suffer 
 liis hard earnings to be accumulated by money- 
 lenders in the shape of interest. So long as me- 
 chanics and tradesmen believe that banking in- 
 stitutions arc just and necessary, so long will they 
 continue to be robbed by the control of prices, by
 
 192 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 usury, and the golden harvests by operathig fic- 
 titious capital. So long as the people believe 
 that corporations have the right to control pub- 
 lic highways, and claim in them the rights 
 of absolute ownership and the right to con- 
 solidate their interests to monopolize trans- 
 portation, and thus control labor and market 
 prices, so long will these corporations continue 
 their brigandage upon the toiling millions. So 
 long as the people have full confidence in our 
 educational institutions, and regard them as the 
 "palladium of our liberties," there will be no 
 disposition to change them — for they contribute 
 largely to the perpetuation of existing conditions. 
 
 Without a radical change in public sentiment ; 
 without a clear conviction that our system of 
 government is wrong — no matter what the opin- 
 ion is as to the mode of administering the existing 
 one ; until the conviction is clear and positive 
 that vested powers have usurped natural rights, 
 whereby laws are enacted in favor of the few to 
 rob the many, and an executive power instituted 
 by which these laws are enforced — there is no 
 hope for a remedy. 
 
 When courts fail to administer justice ; when 
 they become the willing tools of designing men 
 and powerful corporations, by which the strong 
 are supported and the weak without protection ;
 
 EDUCATION. 193 
 
 when these are manipuhited wholly by a special 
 and exclusive class requiring special training, and 
 the validity of their authority goes unquestioned 
 by the people, who bow with submission to that 
 authority — what hope is there in reform in the 
 administration of justice, or the substitution of a 
 better mode ? 
 
 It can never be. A i-evolution must come ; 
 and it will come. Shall it come in blood, or in 
 peace ? By the bayonet, or the ballot ? By pas- 
 sion, or reason ? By the desolation of war, or the 
 guidance of wisdom ? We hope and toil and pray 
 for the latter. Let us transform this oligarchy of 
 wealth, this usurpation of poAver, this monopoly 
 of capital, this universal greed of avarice, by 
 which millions upon millions are made to bow 
 their backs for the burdens of despotism, and 
 bend the knee in servile submission to a proud 
 and haughty aristocracy, into a New Republic, 
 wherein justice will hold rule and the law of 
 righteousness will prevail, equality and liberty 
 founded on the natural, inalienable rights of man 
 will bless this oppressed and greed-cursed people. 
 How little they appreciate this transformation ! 
 Accustomed to wrongs and usurj)ations, to false 
 theories and dictation, and having never tasted 
 the sweets of liberty, harmony, competence, and 
 the inestimable blessings of that full and exalted 
 9
 
 194 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 development and culture In all the attributes of 
 their being to their full capacity, they seem to 
 expect little more than they realize. 
 
 It Is difficult to think aright ; It Is more diffi- 
 cult to act aright when thought is rightly directed 
 and the Ideal formed ; but by the exercise of will, 
 by surrounding one's self with good influences 
 and repelling bad ones, and persisting In this, 
 that ideal character can be realized. 
 
 When this is done, education will have done its 
 work. All the powers and faculties of the human 
 being will be developed and cultivated to the 
 highest capacity, and the " pursuit of happiness " 
 will be crowned in full fruition. 
 
 I
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 195 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 
 
 "See yonder poor, o'erlabored wight, 
 
 So abject, mean, and vile. 
 Who begs a brother of the earth 
 
 To give him leave to toil. 
 Then see his lordly fellow-worm 
 
 The poor petition spurn, 
 Unmindful though a weeping wife 
 
 And helpless offspring mourn." 
 
 With the vast amount of speculation and dis- 
 cussion in regard to the relation of labor and 
 capital, the problem seems as far from solution 
 as ever. To discuss this important question, it 
 will be necessary to take up and examine each 
 factor involved, and consider all of them in their 
 logical oi-der. 
 
 The ultimate object of all labor is the produc- 
 tion of values ; but without the necessary condi- 
 tions and appliances for its embodiment and 
 utilization it is of no avail. Labor perishes the 
 instant it is performed, and without embodying 
 its results it is lost forever. One might labor all 
 day in lifting at a heavy weight, with no result 
 save that of physical exhaustion. 
 
 Mere human exertion, then, without embodi-
 
 196 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 merit in valuable results, is a waste of life and of 
 its purposes, the aim of the laborer. Its impor- 
 tance may be better estimated when we consider 
 that, with the exception of air and water, there is 
 no necessary or luxury of life that is not the pro- 
 duction of labor or made valuable by it. Labor, 
 then,. in the sense here considered, is human ex- 
 ertion in the production of values. 
 
 There are three essential factors in such pro- 
 duction ; namely, land, labor, and capital. The 
 ultimate of human exertion is value. Utility is 
 the measure of value. All that can be appropri- 
 ated to the use of life is value. All value is in 
 some way consumed, for its use depends on con- 
 sumption. 
 
 Consumption, then, is the basis of all values, 
 because all values are in some way consumed. 
 Life is one continued series of production and 
 consumption, of composition and decay, of crea- 
 tion and destruction ; even death itself is the es- 
 sential and indispensable condition of life. 
 
 To produce those forms of matter necessary 
 for consumption is the first object of all labor. 
 The inexhaustible resources of potential wealth, 
 that is, natural elements wrought into values, and 
 the intelligence, skill, and industry of man, are all 
 utilized that he may live ; and to live is to realize 
 all the possibilities of life by developing, cultivat-
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 197 
 
 ing, and harmonizing all the attributes of man, 
 thus Jifting him up and out from his low estate 
 of ignorance and selfishness, and fitting him for 
 his high and noble destiny. 
 
 Consumption is the demand, and human exer- 
 tion, coupled with nature's resources, is the sup- 
 ply. Here we have the basis of political economy. 
 As population increases, the demand for its ne- 
 cessities are balanced by the increasing intelli- 
 gence and inventive resources in creating supply. 
 But there is an essential factor in supply that 
 will not respond to man's intelligence and invent- 
 ive genius nor his creative power. 
 
 That factor is land. When population increases 
 and accumulates, and demand keeps pace with it, 
 this essential factor remains fixed. Its control 
 in the production of values gives to the owners 
 thereof control of life ; and as every one has the 
 right to control his own life, he has a right to the 
 means of control. 
 
 As population increases, the ralue of land in- 
 creases, for the plain reason that increase of pop- 
 ulation carries with it increased demand ; and as 
 demand rises above supply, the primary source of 
 supply (land), being fixed in quantity, must rise 
 in value. Primarily and essentially, land has no 
 value ; without population to consume its prod- 
 ucts there would be no value. Were there but
 
 198 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 one man on the earth, the value of all the land 
 on it would be measured by the value of his life; 
 with two, it would be doubled ; and so on. 
 
 Land has no market value so long as all who 
 Avish to occupy it have full access to it. But as 
 population begins to press, and the quantity is 
 proportionally lessened to the population, its 
 market value begins to rise, and continues to as 
 long as population continues to increase. We 
 say " market value," because, so long as govern- 
 ment is founded on the individual rights of 
 property, land will be included in the category* 
 of such rights, with the sole restriction of limi- 
 tation. While the right to values produced is 
 commensurate with the ability of the individual 
 to produce them, the right to land is commensu- 
 rate with the right to life itself, since it is given 
 by the Creator and is not a product of labor. 
 
 This rise in the value of land is measured by 
 the value it yields — value increased by the in- 
 creased demand for it — and should belong to the 
 owner of the land, if it is owned only by those 
 who cultivate it. This would be proper, for as 
 no man has a right to land that he cannot cul- 
 tivate, it belongs to those who can. 
 
 Absolute property in land secures the value of 
 it to the owner who is only a unit in the increase 
 of such value, and is therefore not entitled to 
 
 1
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 199 
 
 more than his proportion of such value. In the 
 monopoly of land, one of its great evils consist 
 in the holder of large tracts taking the benefits 
 of the increase of value by increase of popula- 
 tion — a value for which no exchange is given. 
 
 The consideration now is the control and 
 monopoly of this essential factor, land, in the 
 solution of the labor problem. Since it is co- 
 essential with the factor, labor, it must hold an 
 intimite and important relation to it ; and since 
 land is the primary source of values essential to 
 life, the other factors are dependent on it. 
 
 The monopolist can demand a share of the 
 products of the soil in proportion to the extent 
 of his monopoly. In proportion to that demand, 
 labor's share is diminished and labor cheapened. 
 This effect is not limited to agriculture, but ex- 
 tends to all the departments of industry. The 
 poverty of the laboring classes in Europe is 
 owing mainly to this cause ; for, as has been 
 stated, increasing the price of land and products, 
 labor's share of such increase would rise as in- 
 crease in land (released from monopoly) rises, if 
 rents were not exacted, for the value of such 
 rents would go to labor. The principal reason 
 why labor is not reduced to the European stand- 
 ard is owing to the large area of land in propor- 
 tion to the population.
 
 200 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 The pressure is not yet strongly felt ; our 
 population is yet sparse, and our public domain 
 is wide, and the ability to appropriate additional 
 domain not yet exhausted, but the principle and 
 conditions are all here, only waiting the inevita- 
 ble results of those principles and the logic of 
 those conditions to develop the curse of landlord- 
 ism to its European standard on American soil. 
 
 "In charging the Dublin jury in the Land League 
 cases, Mr. Justice Fitzgerald told them that the 
 land laws of Ireland were more favorable to ten- 
 ant than those of Great Britain, Belgium, or the 
 United States. As a matter of fact, Justice Fitz- 
 gerald was right." — Henry George. 
 
 We even now feel the oppression of landlord- 
 ism, even with a population comparatively 
 sparse ; but the appropriation of -land in large 
 tracts to single individuals is rapidly going on, 
 and the laborer will be reduced to the standard 
 of European peasantry as an inevitable result. 
 
 In the further examination of this subject, it 
 will be well to define the terms usually employed 
 in the discussion of the labor question. 
 
 Land includes soil, water, all minerals and 
 metals, timber, air, and sunlight. 
 
 Labor is human exertion in the production of 
 values. 
 
 Capital is that portion of wealth employed in 
 the production of values.
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 201 
 
 Rent is the increase of value in land arising 
 from and measured by the increased demand for 
 its productions by increasing population. 
 
 Wage is the compensation for labor in the 
 production of values. 
 
 Profit is compensation for the consumption of 
 wealth in the production of values. 
 
 Wealth is a general term, and includes all 
 values. 
 
 The true formula of the labor problem in agri- 
 cultural industry may be stated thus : 
 
 (1.) Land + (labor -j- capital) = values, the 
 means of life under the ownership and control of 
 one individual. 
 
 In manufactures the formula is : 
 
 (2.) Raw material (land products) -j- (labor 
 -\- capital) = values, which may be consumed or 
 exchanged. 
 
 In mining industries the formula is : 
 
 (3.) Mines (portions of land) + (labor -|- 
 capital) := values, to be consumed or exchanged. 
 
 In transportation, travel, and communication : 
 
 (4.) Road-beds, streams, and coasts (portions 
 of land) + (labor -\- capital) = increased values. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that labor and capital are 
 
 inseparable companions in the production of 
 
 values, and land in some form is its basis. In 
 
 all private enterprises and for individual gain, 
 
 9*
 
 202 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 labor and capital must be furnished by the same 
 person ; that is, every man must operate his own 
 capitaL In all enterprises of a public character, 
 they are to be carried on by corporations, in 
 which the people are stockholders and equal re- 
 cipients of the dividends. In transportation, travel, 
 and lines of communication, postal service, com- 
 merce, education, and means for defense, the peo- 
 ple in their governmental capacity should operate 
 and control them. In private enterprises, vol- 
 untary associations of capital may be permitted, 
 wherein the laborers are co-owners with the cap- 
 italists and recipients of the dividends regulated 
 on a just basis. 
 
 The true relation of capital and labor, where 
 wealth is ])roduced directly from the soil, is tlie 
 occupancy and cultivation of the land only by the 
 owners of it. This is the solution of the labor 
 problem in the department of agricultural indus- 
 try. As long as land is held in large quantities, 
 and the holding protected by law, and this ac- 
 cepted as legitimate, the problem will remain un- 
 solved — the premise being wrong, the conclusion, 
 however logical, must be wrong. 
 
 In other departments of industry, the principle 
 is that all who participate in the production of 
 values shall be recipients of its dividends ; thus, a 
 common interest is established wiiich will harmon-
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 203 
 
 ize capital and labor, and annihilate all antago- 
 nisms that now threaten such serious results. 
 
 The great difficulty is in overcoming the ra- 
 pacity and greed of capitalists, and arousing the 
 spirit and enterprise of the wage-laborer. 
 
 According to the national census, the propor- 
 tion of people engaged in agriculture outnumbers 
 all others engaged in industrial pursuits. Noth- 
 ing remains but for them to secure the benefits of 
 equal protection, which they would gladly extend 
 to their fellow-laborers in other departme-nts of 
 industry. In accordance with provisions already 
 existing, the power is in their hands. The bur- 
 dens of transportation, the robbery of market ex- 
 changes, the oppressions of landlords, the tyranny 
 of courts, and exorbitant taxes bear them down, 
 and crush out the spirit of independence. Care- 
 worn and weary, harassed with debt and uncer- 
 tainty, they have neither time nor ojjportunity 
 for the enjoyment of social and intellectual pleas- 
 ures. The farmer, who sliould be the most inde- 
 pendent, with the exception of wage-servers and 
 tramps, is the most dependent; the primary pro- 
 ducer of the chief values for consumption, they 
 are spirited out of his hands, and he is often left 
 in want. Let him once understand his power 
 and appreciate the value of his rights, they would 
 soon be his to enjoy. His is the most important
 
 204 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 and independent vocation ; let him take the lead ; 
 but this importance and independence exist only in 
 song and story, while he, following in the lead of 
 some wily, ambitious demagogue, under the stim- 
 ulus of the party lash, becomes the willing dupe 
 and supporter of his schemes for personal ad- 
 vancement. 
 
 In regard to wage-earners, who are at the 
 mercy of their employers with the present antag- 
 onism between capital and labor, the case is still 
 worse. Wage-service is slavery ; not such as ex- 
 isted in the Southern States, where the interest 
 of the master was in the welfare of his slave, and 
 thus prompted by selfishness to keep him in good 
 condition ; but such slavery as cupidity and av- 
 arice dictate : when one is disabled or worn down 
 with toil, he is turned out for another to take his 
 place. He is so dependent that he cannot afford 
 to displease his master, however much he may 
 feel inclined to do so. His liberty and manhood 
 have disappeared ; the semblance of his liberty 
 consists in the right to starve, and of his man- 
 hood in the disgrace attached to " strikes " and 
 riots. He will concede all tliis, and still go on 
 in his servitude. This condition of an " Ameri- 
 can freeman," with the elective franchise in his 
 hand, is terrible to contemplate : in a land where 
 all are "equal," he in poverty and rags, his em-
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 205 
 
 ployer in " purple and fine linen " ; the one going 
 to his rented hovel, the other to his gilded palace. 
 
 Labor is the expenditure of life itself, and he 
 who sells it for a mere pittance is to all intents 
 and purposes a slave, and will continue so as long 
 as he appeals for higher wages or better condi- 
 tions while liis master holds the power. 
 
 Mr. Julian, on the floor of Congress, said : 
 
 " Nothing is more remarkable than the growing 
 tendency of legislation in this country to lend itself 
 to the service of capital of great corporations, of 
 raonoi3olies of every sort, while too often turning 
 an unfriendly eye upon the people, and especially 
 upon the laboring poor. The cause of this may 
 fairly be traced to the evil genius of the times, 
 Avhich makes the greed for sudden wealth a sort of 
 devouring jjassion, and thus naturally seizes upon 
 the machinery of government in the accomplish- 
 ment of its purposes. This bad spirit, which has 
 been steadily marching toward its alarming ascen- 
 dency since the outbreak of the late civil wai*, 
 writes itself down upon every phase of societv and 
 life. 
 
 "It breeds political corruption in the most gi- 
 gantic and frightful forms. It whets the appetite 
 for public plunder, and through the aggregation of 
 capital in the hands of the cunning and unscruj:)!!- 
 lous, it menaces the eqiial rights of the people and 
 the well-being of society. So malign a spirit must 
 be confronted. It is no more a question of party 
 politics, for it threatens the life of all parties, and 
 the perpetuity of the government itself. It not 
 only invokes the saving offices of the preacher and
 
 206 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 the moralist, but it summons to new dnties nnd in- 
 creased vigilance every man who really concerns 
 himself for the welfare of his country. 
 
 " I believe the evil to which I refer finds some 
 explanation in the false teachings of political econ- 
 omy. According to many of the leading writers 
 on this science, its fundamental idea is the creation 
 and increase of productive wealth. If farming on 
 a great scale, carried on with skill and appliances 
 which concentrated capital alone can command and 
 methodize, will yield greater results than the tillage 
 of the soil in small homesteads and by ruder meth- 
 ods, then the system of large farming must be pre- 
 ferred, though it deprives multitudes of the poor of 
 all opportunity to acquire homes and independence, 
 and entails the appalling evils of landlordism, and 
 the whole brood of mischiefs with which the mo- 
 nopoly of the soil has scourged the people in every 
 age. 
 
 " So if manufacturing on a grand scale, with the 
 perfected machinery and cheap labor which capital 
 can wield, turn out a larger product and at lower 
 prices than numerous small industries, then such 
 manufactories must be fostered, though the policy 
 pauperizes and brutalizes thousands of human be- 
 ings who take rank as ' operatives,' and whose exist- 
 ence is made a curse rather than a blessing. I 
 protest against such principles as both false and 
 unjust. ' The increase of wealth,' says Sismondi, 
 ' is not the end of political economy, but its instru- 
 ment in procuring the haj^piness of all. It regards 
 chiefly the producer, and strives for the welfare of 
 the people through a just distribution. It is not 
 the object of nations to produce the greatest quan- 
 tity of work at the cheapest rate.' 
 
 " In the light of these broad and humane princi-
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 207 
 
 pies I interpret the duty of the government. Its 
 mission within the sphere of its just powers is to 
 protect labor, the source of all wealth ; and to seek 
 constantly the well-being of the millions who toil. 
 Capital can take care of itself. Always sagacious, 
 sleepless, and aggressive, it holds all the advantages 
 in its battle with labor. The balance of power falls 
 so naturally in its hands that labor has no oppor- 
 tunity to make a just bargain. The labor market, 
 it has been well observed, differs from any other. 
 The seller of every other commodity has the option 
 to sell or not ; but the commodity the workingman 
 brings is life. He must sell it or die. Labor, there- 
 fore, should not be regarded as merchandise to be 
 bought and sold, and governed by the law of supply 
 and demand, but as capital, and its human needs 
 should always be considered. ' The rugged face of 
 society,' says a celebrated writer, 'checkered with 
 the extremes of affluence and want, proves that 
 some extraordinary violence has been committed 
 upon it, and calls on justice for redress. The great 
 mass of the poor in all countries have become a 
 hereditary race, and it is next to impossible for them 
 to get out of the state of themselves. It is also to 
 be observed that this mass increases in all countries 
 that are called civilized. The proposition that the 
 rich are becoming richer and the poor becoming 
 poorer has been vehemently denied, but I cannot 
 doubt its truth for a moment. I want no statistics 
 to settle it, since the unnatural domination of cap- 
 ital over labor, which instead of being repressed by 
 legislation is systematically aided by it, clears the 
 question of all doubt. Our vitiated currency lai'gely 
 increases the cost of necessaries of life, and is thus a 
 heavy tax upon the poor. Our system of national 
 banking is an organized monopoly in the interests
 
 208 THE NEW RErUBLIC. 
 
 of capitalists, is demanded by no public necessity, 
 and renders no substantial service in return for the 
 burdens it imposes on the people 
 
 "The population of our great cities and towns, 
 instead of re-enforcing the rural districts, is unduly 
 increasing ; and so is the number of buildings de- 
 voted to banking, brokerage, insurance, and kindred 
 projects. Not production, but traffic, is the order 
 of the day. The enhanced cost of the instruments 
 requisite for the prosecution of industrial jjursuits, 
 and the higher price of fuel, food, and clothing, 
 naturally hinder the accumulation of capital suffi- 
 cient to enable the man of small means to establish 
 himself as an independent producer. This necessity 
 subordinates labor more and more to capital, and 
 concentrates the business of manufacturing and ex- 
 changing into large establishments, while working 
 the destruction of smaller ones. Of course, the ten- 
 dency of all this is to render the many dependent 
 on the few for the means of their livelihood, rather 
 than upon themselves, and to divide society into 
 two classes: the cai^italists, who own everything; 
 and hands, who own nothing, but depend entirely 
 on the capital class. 
 
 " That the policy of the government to a great 
 extent evokes and aggravates these evils can 
 scarcely bu questioned ; and that the policy results 
 from the ugly fact that the laboring and producing 
 classes are unrepresented in the government, save 
 by the non-j^roducers and traffickers, is equally clear. 
 It illustrates the evils of class legislation, and calls 
 on the people to apply the remedy." 
 
 " The unproductives," says Commissioner Wells, 
 " being the chief makers of the laws and institution ■, 
 for the protection of labor and ingenuity, the in- 
 crease of production, and the exchange and trans-
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 209 
 
 fer of property, they shape all their devices so 
 cunningly and work them so cleverly, that they, 
 the non-producers, continue to grow rich faster 
 than the jDroducers. Whoever at this day watches 
 the subject and course of legislation, and appreciates 
 the sjjirit of the laws, cannot fail to perceive how 
 more and more the idea of the transfer of the sur- 
 plus products of society, and the creation of facilities 
 for it, available to the cunning and the quick as 
 against the dull and the slow, has come to i:)ervade 
 the whole fabric of that which we call government; 
 and how large a number of the most progressive 
 minds in the nation have been led to accept as a 
 fundamental truth in political doctrine that the 
 best way to take care of the many is to commence 
 by taking care of the few ; that all that which is 
 necessary to secure the well-being of the workman 
 is to j)rovide a satisfactory profit for his employer." 
 
 Labor and capital are insej)arable and must 
 harmonize. Labor must own and control capi- 
 tal. These are the essential conditions of the 
 problem which render its solution simple and 
 easy. There can be no other. If capital con- 
 trols labor, the laborer is the victim of avarice 
 and tyranny. Eight-hour agitations, trades- 
 unions, and other associations for the protection 
 of labor against capital are ineffectual as a rem- 
 edy, but useful as educators. Strikes imply the 
 right of capital to control labor, and thus surren- 
 der the whole question. 
 
 All of these means can prove but palliatives 
 at best. AVc might as well attempt to solve the
 
 210 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 problem of eclipses on the Ptolemaic theory of 
 astronomy. 
 
 " The labor question is indeed the natural succes- 
 sor and logical sequence of the slavery question. 
 It is, in fact, the same question in another form, 
 since the practical ownership of labor by capital 
 necessarily involves the ownership of the laborer 
 himself." 
 
 We speak of labor and capital in the same cat- 
 egory. This is not true. Labor is guided by 
 intelligence, and this becomes an element in it. 
 It is human exertion, and human exertion is the 
 expenditure of life itself. It is inspired by love ; 
 it is prompted by affection. It is life, energy, 
 clothed with moral power, and in it are involved 
 the welfare and destiny of the human race. 
 
 The control of labor by capital means the 
 reign of avarice. It is simply brigandage, rob- 
 bery, despotism. In the hands of greedy, am- 
 bitions, and unscrupulous men — and they are the 
 ones who seek it — its power consists in control- 
 ling the means of life, and thus controlling life 
 itself. The first great necessity of life is a bare 
 subsistence. When this alone exists, and is de- 
 pendent on the will and interest of another, the 
 relation is that of master and slave. And such 
 is the condition of wage-labor ; and by the agen- 
 cies now at work the wealth-producer is rapidly
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 211 
 
 reaching the same condition. Tiie subserviency 
 of legislation to corporate rule, the immense 
 power vested in the executive by which party 
 spirit is excited and fostered, the servility of the 
 courts and their authority in interpreting law, 
 the exercise of sovereign functions of the govern- 
 ment by a confederation of corporations prompted 
 by avarice and lust of dominion, have already 
 cast the die; and without a radical reconstruction 
 of government, the inevitable doom of labor is 
 Slavery. 
 
 Since the sole purpose of labor is the produc- 
 tion of wealth, and labor-saving machinery by its 
 advantages in utilizins: mechanical forces is held 
 in the hands of capitalists, manual labor is coni- 
 pelled to compete with it ; and this power to 
 pex'form more work and much cheaper is utilized 
 by the capitalists to further oppress labor. Man- 
 ual labor costs more than machine labor. To 
 produce a manual laborer, twenty years of time 
 and a vast amount of values are consumed. His 
 capacity is comparatively limited, and his sub- 
 sistence absoi'bs a large proportion of his produc- 
 tion. To produce a machine laborer, little time 
 is required, and the cost is comparatively small; 
 while the productive power is much greater than 
 that of the manual laborer. With these advan- 
 tages, capitalists build up vast manufactories in
 
 212 THE XEAV REPUBLIC. 
 
 which most of the hibor is performed by machin- 
 ery, and then invoke the aid of government in 
 chartering corporations, clothing them with legal 
 powers not permitted to individuals or simple 
 partnerships, and protecting the manufacturing 
 industries of the cov7itri/. 
 
 The Southern slave-owner never became a mil- 
 lionaire, because the cost of labor in the slave 
 was so great. While a thousand dollars in 
 slave capital would bring but a meager net profit, 
 the same amount in labor-saving machinery 
 would be as much greater as its power to pro- 
 duce is greater and the cost of running it is less ; 
 thus, the Eastern capitalist becomes a millionaire. 
 Besides, the superannuated and disabled slave was 
 supported by his owner ; but the white slave is 
 obliged to shift for himself, and look out for em- 
 ployment, under the serious disadvantages of com- 
 j)etition with the wage-seeker, and the despotism 
 of the employer or his agent. In this way, the 
 wasre-slave is reduced to a worse condition than 
 the negro slave. Practically, the question of per- 
 sonal liberty has but little consideration ; 'not 
 only from the fact that the negro is disposed to 
 contentment with the supply of physical wants, 
 but from the further fact that necessity and pov- 
 erty leave but little liberty to enjoy for the 
 wage-slave, however keenly he may feel the 
 practical deprivation. 
 
 J
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 213 
 
 Thus, by the application of the power of 
 steam and electricity to labor-savino- machinery, 
 the capitalist is enabled to produce wealth by 
 converting it into labor. The laborer is thereby 
 robbed, because these powers and appliances are 
 appropriated and monopolized by the few who 
 can command capital. These powers and appli- 
 ances are the gifts of God and the ingenuity of 
 men in the laborino; ranks. Leijislatures have 
 legalized and courts have confirmed these appro- 
 priations, and thus the law is made the instru- 
 ment of oppression and robbery. 
 
 The rights of the people are as dear and 
 sacred as life itself, and the government whose 
 sole functions are the regulation and protection 
 of those rights is employed to rob the people of 
 them by their usurpation and exercise by unscru- 
 pulous men whose ambition is to vie with the 
 splendor and station of their competitors across 
 the sea. And the [)eople are made by their la- 
 bor and servitude to support them. 
 
 Law cannot make a wrong right nor a right 
 wrOng ; yet here is a system which robs the pro- 
 ducers of wealth more effectually and systemat- 
 ically, and with as little remorse, as the bandit 
 outlaws of society commit theirs ; a system that 
 condemns millions of human beings to a strug- 
 gling, lingering existence, amid the lavishment of
 
 214 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 wealth and display of magnificence equaled only 
 by the richest aristocracies of Europe, and in a 
 country abounding in the most profuse natural re- 
 sources that nature has ever lavished upon any 
 country. 
 
 What is the remedy ? Correct thought must 
 precede correct action. No one can do right 
 without he thinks right. Here comes the ques- 
 tion of education. The cause of the present self- 
 ish condition has been discussed. Avarice has 
 been the great teacher, and well has he done his 
 work. The love of money is the ruling passion. 
 Greed, cruel and relentless, is the presiding gen- 
 ius, and all the skill and ingenuity of man has 
 been employed to incorporate it into a govei-n- 
 ment to concentrate and perpetuate its power. 
 
 The inherent tendency of the human mind is 
 to reverence authority, the more especially when 
 expressed in the form of law and under the 
 sanction of courts. Antiquity fortifies it, and 
 imposing ceremonies give it an irresistible charm. 
 The power of custom and habit to which the 
 mind becomes familiar offers serious obstacles 
 in the way of reform — obstacles that can only be 
 removed by reason and a keen sense of right. 
 
 The first thing is to consider the principles 
 upon which a system is founded, and upon them 
 lay out the proper procedure. We must decide
 
 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 215 
 
 what we want — what is needed to carry out the 
 work. In the problem before us we have land, 
 labor, and capital : land, the universal source of 
 sup[)ly ; labor, the appliance of means to develop 
 and produce ; and capital, the means for the pro- 
 duction. Land, being a fixed quantity and base 
 of supply, must be limited to the requirements of 
 and controlled by labor. Capital, which is but 
 stored-up labor, is the inseparable agent of labor. 
 But as an indispensable and essential condition, 
 the laborer must be intelligent and just. " The 
 first question," says Henry George, " that natur- 
 ally arises is that of right. Among whatever 
 kind of people such a matter as this is discussed, 
 the question of right is sure to be raised. This 
 to me seems a very significant thing, for I believe 
 it to spring from nothing less than a universal 
 perception of the human mind — -a perception of- 
 ten dim and vague, yet still a universal percep- 
 tion — that justice is the supreme law of the 
 universe, so that as a short road to what is best, 
 we instinctively ask what is right." 
 
 Now, what is the right in this case ? That 
 which one produces with his own means belongs 
 to him. No one can deny this proposition. If 
 capital is furnished by another, a portion of the 
 products belongs to him. The two are then 
 partners. Since capital is stored-up labor, they
 
 216 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 are really one factor in the production of wealth. 
 But labor is intelligent ; it is life itself and must 
 control. Either the laborer must own the capi- 
 tal, or unite his interests with the owner of it. 
 Then the interests of capital and labor are unit- 
 ed, and protection to labor comes under the law 
 of self-preservation. Labor-saving machinery 
 would be utilized for the benefit of all, and 
 wealth would increase, and poverty, with its con- 
 sequent crime, degradation, and misery, would 
 disappear, and the blessings of a true republic 
 bring to realization all that the patriot fathers 
 aimed to accomplish.
 
 TARIFF. 217 
 
 CHAPTER XYI. 
 
 TARIFF. 
 
 "The freest government cannot long endure when the 
 tendency of the law is to create a rapid accumulation of 
 property in the hands of the few, and to render the masses 
 poor and dependent."— DawjeZ Webster. 
 
 " If I could, 1 would have free trade with all the world, 
 without toll or custom-house." — Emerson. 
 
 Intimately connected with the question of 
 the relations of labor and capital is that of tariff. 
 The question arises from a conflict of local inter- 
 ests, as a method of raising a national revenue 
 and protecting certain industries. In manufac- 
 turing districts, high rates of tariff are con- 
 tended for, and in agricultural districts the 
 theory of low rate and even free trade seems to 
 prevail. 
 
 A tariff is a tax or duty laid on certain articles 
 or commodities imported from foreign countries, 
 as a mode of revenue and for the protection of 
 domestic manufactures. 
 
 As a source of revenue, it is quite generally 
 
 admitted. This arises from the concessions of 
 
 political parties in recognizing a tariff ; but this 
 
 method for revenue is open to serious objections, 
 
 10
 
 218 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 even if a better system were not at hand. As a 
 means of protection, it is a complete success to 
 the extent to which it is carried. But whom 
 does it protect? Labor, and thus lift it from 
 servile dependence ? The fact, as shown in the 
 United States Census Reports, that wage-labor 
 is less than a dollar a day, and has steadily de- 
 creased about eight per cent since 1870, will 
 show that labor is not the object of its fostering 
 care. But somebody is protected. The rapid in- 
 crease of capital in manufacturing and mining 
 localities answers the question. But the tariff 
 system is open to other serious objections, which 
 will be considered in this chapter. 
 
 Not only will the reader's judgment be ap- 
 pealed to, but facts from authentic sources will 
 be presented to explain why politicians and sub- 
 sidized journals are so sensitive on this subject. 
 Let us illustrate : 
 
 " A St. Louis merchant went to New York to 
 purchase goods. He first called on an English 
 merchant who sold goods from his own manufac- 
 tory in England. The St. Louis merchant asked 
 the price of some woolen goods, and was told two 
 dollars a yard. Said he, 'Howls this? Before 
 the war I got this kind of goods for one dollar a 
 yard.' ' Yes,' rej)lied the English merchant, ' such 
 was the price then, but your government has put 
 one dollar a yard duty on this goods, and now we 
 sell for two dollars, and pay one dollar to your
 
 TARIFF. 219 
 
 government, and put the other dollar in our own 
 pocket.' The St. Louis merchant crossed the street 
 to an American merchant, who manufactures his 
 own goods in the United States, and asked the 
 l^rice of the same quality of goods, and was told 
 two dollars a yard. He replied, 'How is this? 
 The English merchant sells the same article at the 
 same price, and he j^ays a duty on his goods.' 
 'That's so,' said the American merchant; 'the Eng- 
 lish merchant sets the price, and we sell at his 
 price, and that's where we have the advantage of 
 him. We put the two dollars in our own pocket.' " 
 
 If the duty be laid on imported goods of the 
 same kind that are manufactui'ed in this country 
 and sold, the duty goes to the government ; but 
 if manufactured in this country and sold, the 
 duty is added to the cost of manufacture, and 
 goes into the pocket of the manufacturer. 
 
 To show the inconsistency and injustice to our 
 industries, let us take two of the staple products 
 of our own country, namely, sugar and tobacco. 
 A duty of from two to five cents a pound is laid 
 on sugar, and an internal-revenue tax is laid on 
 tobacco. 
 
 Through the manipulation of the markets, cap- 
 italists control the price of sugar, and wholesale 
 dealers and refiners receive a profit equal to the 
 duty imposed on all the products of this country, 
 at the expense of the consumers. On the other 
 liand, a tax is laid on the tobacco that is produced
 
 220 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 in tills country; that goes direct to the govern- 
 ment. So we see that in one instance the benefit 
 goes to the favored capitalist, in the other it is 
 paid hy the producer. This discrimination is in 
 favor of a certain class and against another. 
 Even if the sugar-producer got the benefit, the 
 injustice would have been no less ; but the gov- 
 ernment is never guilty of favoring production. 
 Both commodities are produced and Imported, 
 and bear the same relation to industry and trade. 
 
 It is urged that tariff Increases the price of 
 labor and of agricultural products, thus increas- 
 ing the prosperity of the country. 
 
 It may be of Interest to the reader to look back 
 and ascertain if protection in the past has done 
 anything in the way of redeeming the promises 
 that have been made in its behalf. 
 
 " Unfortunately for purposes of comparison, this 
 country has never enjoyed absolute free trade since 
 the machinery of the Constitution was got into 
 working order. We will have to content ourselves 
 with comparisons between periods of high duties 
 and periods of low duties. If protection possesses 
 the virtue claimed for it by its advocates, every ad- 
 vance in the rate of duty will be found to have been 
 succeeded by, first, an increase in population through 
 immigration ; second, a falling off of exports, of farm 
 products; and third, in an increase in the price of 
 the same ; and on the other hand, under periods of 
 low duties the opposite of the foregoing results will 
 be found to have succeeded.
 
 TARIFF. 221 
 
 " The first tariff act in which the principle of pro- 
 tection cut any figure was passed in 1816. There 
 was an increase in the number of articles taxed, 
 and also an increase of duties made in 1824 and in 
 1828. 
 
 " Let us now see what effect this had on immi- 
 gration, prices, and exports of farm products : 
 
 In 1820 the number of immigrants was 8,385 
 
 " 1824 " " " " " 7,912 
 
 " 1828 " " " " " 7,382 
 
 " 1833 " " " " " 58,G40 
 
 "Thirteen years of unbroken protection gives an 
 increase of over 80,000, of which 58,640 were in 
 1833. In this year the compromise tariff went into 
 effect. This act provided for a gradual reduction 
 in the rate of duty until it reached twenty per cent. 
 This period has been erroneously denominated a 
 non-protective period, and is embraced in the years 
 1833-41. 
 
 "As stated above, the number of immigrants 
 which arrived on our shores in 1833 was 58,640. 
 After nine years of lower and regularly diminishing 
 duties, the number of immigrants in 1842 was 
 104,563. The liigh tariff in 1842 was followed in 
 1843 with a reduction in the number of immigrants 
 of about 40,000. Three-fourths of the year 1843 
 brought but 52,496, which would be about 70,000 
 for the year. 
 
 "The Democratic Congress in 1846 gave protec- 
 tion a 'black eye,' and immigrants to the number of 
 234,968 responded to the change in policy. After 
 four years of ' British free trade,' in 1850, 310,004, 
 increased to 427,833 in 1854, immigrants cast their 
 lot among us. 
 
 "Never but once prior to 1880 did the number
 
 222 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 of immigrants equal the number that came to us in 
 
 1854, namely, 459,803 in 1873 
 
 "There was no change in the tariff from 1854 to 
 1856; yet there was a falling off of more than one- 
 half of the number of immigrants in the latter year. 
 Again : there was no change in the rate of duty in 
 the years 1879 and 1880 ; yet the difference in the 
 number of immigrants arriving in the two years is 
 very great, being 157,862 in 1879, and 457,257 in 
 1880." 
 
 If protection had increased the prosperity of 
 our country and raised the price of farm prod- 
 ucts, and thus stimulated agriculture, foreign im- 
 migration would have responded to the changCj 
 but the foregoing exhibit shows that such is not 
 the case. Our author goes on : 
 
 " The great consideration with the farmer is the 
 question of price. Fortunately, we have a complete 
 record running back to a time that antedates the 
 memory of the oldest inhabitant. Wheat is the 
 staff of life, and I will take it as a criterion. Prices 
 given are taken from the records of trade : 
 
 Wheat in 1825 was worth per bushel $0. 92 
 
 " " 182G " " " " 94 
 
 " " 1827 " " " " 99 
 
 " " 1828 " " " " ............. 1.22 
 
 " " 1829 " " " " 1.24 
 
 " " 1830 " " " " 1.07 
 
 " " 1831 " " " " 1.18* 
 
 " " 1832 " " " " 1.26*" 
 
 Average for eight years l.lOg 
 
 " Under the compromise tariff —
 
 TARIFF. 
 
 223 
 
 Wheat in 1833 was worth $1.19i 
 
 " " 1834 " " 1.06 
 
 " " 1835 " " 1.21^ 
 
 " " 1836 " " 1.78 
 
 " " 1837 " " 1-77 
 
 " "1838 " " 1.92 
 
 " " 1839 " " 1.24A 
 
 " "1840 " " 1-04I 
 
 " " 1841 " " 1.18| 
 
 " " 1842 " " 1.14 
 
 Average for ten years 1.35 
 
 Increase of 80.24^ per bushel. 
 
 "From 1825 to 1832 was high tariff. The aver- 
 age of wheat per bushel was 81.10^. From 1833 to 
 1842 was low tariff. The average of wheat per 
 bushel was $1.35. Increase in price during period 
 of low tariff, $0.24J. Second period of protection, 
 1842-46. 
 
 Wheat in 1843 was worth |0.98| 
 
 " "1844 " " 97^ 
 
 " "1845 " " 1.04 
 
 " " 1846 " " l.OSh 
 
 Average during high tariff, per bushel 1.02 
 
 A reduction during this period, per bushel, $0.33. 
 "Non-protection, first period, 1847-50. 
 
 Wheat in 1847 was worth $1.36i 
 
 " " 1848 " " 1.16* 
 
 " " 1849 " " 1.24" 
 
 " " 1850 " " 1.27* 
 
 Average of four years of low duties 1.26 
 
 An increase over protection, per bushel, $0.24. 
 "Second period of low duties, from 185*1-54 : 
 
 Wheat in 1851 was worth $1.07^ 
 
 " " 1852 " " 1.10 
 
 " " 1853 " " 1.39 
 
 " " 1854 " " 2.14 
 
 Average for four years of low duties, per bushel. . . 1.44 
 
 Another increase of 18 cents per bushel.
 
 224 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 "Third period of low duties, from 1855-60. 
 Wheat in 1855 was worth $2.43^ 
 
 185G 
 1857 
 1858 
 1859 
 1860 
 
 1.75 
 
 1.32I 
 
 1.50 
 
 Average for six years low duties, per bushel 1. 69 
 
 " Still another increase of 25 cents, and 67 cents 
 more per bushel than the average under the high 
 tariff of 1842. 
 
 " After fourteen years of what Mr. Carey styled 
 ' British free trade,' wheat was worth in 1860 |1.50, 
 and averaged for the whole period $1,69 per bushel. 
 
 " The table from which I have expounded the 
 foregoing does not give prices since 1860; but I 
 have one giving the price of flour down to 1867, 
 and doubtless I could get data from the" reports of 
 the Department of Agriculture down to 1881, but I 
 do not deem it necessary. 
 
 In 1854 flour was worth per barrel $8.44 
 
 " 1861 " " " " " 5.29 
 
 Average for the years 1854 to 1861 6.47 
 
 In 1862 flour was worth per barrel 4. 70 
 
 " 1863 " " " " " 3.93 
 
 " 1867 " " " " '' 6.66 
 
 Average for seven years, per barrel 4.94 
 
 "A reduction under the tariff yet in force of $1.53 
 per barrel ; and yet protectionists have the effront- 
 ery to tell us that their swindling device is a good 
 thing for farmers. Choice flour is now worth less 
 than in 1860. 
 
 " Here is another table which is a recapitulation 
 of some lengthy ones, and which, for want of space, 
 
 I
 
 TARIFF. 
 
 225 
 
 I will not enumerate. The following are the aver- 
 ages for the periods : 
 
 Period. 
 
 1825-32. 
 
 1833-42. 
 
 1843-46. 
 
 1847-50. 
 
 1850-54. 
 
 1855-60. 
 
 Wheat. Cotton. Corn. Kye. Oats. Butter. Cheese. 
 
 . 1.35| 
 
 . 1.02 
 
 . 1.26 
 
 . 1.44 
 
 . 1.69 
 
 .101 
 
 .12 
 
 .06| 
 
 .09 
 
 .09 
 
 AOl 
 
 .62 
 
 .57 
 
 .77^ 
 
 •68i 
 
 .7U 
 
 .8lt 
 
 .67 
 
 .84J 
 
 .68 
 
 .72 
 
 .9U 
 
 .94" 
 
 .37 
 .43 
 .34 
 .43 
 
 .47 
 .48* 
 
 .15^ 
 .161 
 • 111 
 .15i 
 
 ■m 
 
 .19i 
 
 .07i 
 .05| 
 .06j 
 .07i 
 .081 
 
 " Special attention is called to this last table. 
 To assist in the matter, the jieriods of high and 
 low tariff are here given : 
 
 High tariff from 1825 to 1832, wheat rer bushel. . .$1.10i 
 Low " " 1833 to 1842, " " "... 1.351 
 High " " 1843 to 1846, " " " ... 1.02^ 
 Low " " 1847 to 1850, " " "... 1.26 
 Stilllower "- 1850 to 1854, " " " ...L44 
 British free trade 1855 to 1860, " " " ... 1.69 
 
 " I think I have shown how utterly opposed to 
 fact is the statement that protection affords a bet- 
 ter price for farm products ; and I will now exam- 
 ine the other proposition, that protection builds up 
 a home market. 
 
 "If I were to give the exports of farm products 
 for each year, not one reader in fifty would look 
 them all over; so I will confine myself to compar- 
 ing a few years under the different periods of high 
 and low duties. And let me here remark, that I 
 sometimes fall into the error of speaking of cer- 
 tain periods as non-protective. We have never 
 had non-protective periods, for the reason that 
 Congress has never yet favored a bill that did 
 not afford protection to many industries. Duties 
 under the ' British free trade ' tariff average 
 nineteen per cent. The principle of all tariffa 
 
 10*
 
 226 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 where revenue is not alone the object is protec- 
 tion. They differ only in degree. 
 
 In 1850 farm products exported were $123,875,880 
 
 " I860 " " " " 260,139,925 
 
 " 1870 " " " " 391,269,695 
 
 " 1880 " " " " 685,867,737 
 
 " The same in a different form : 
 
 Exports of farm products in 1850, per capita $5 
 
 " " " " " 1860, " " 8 
 
 " " " " " 1870, " " 10 
 
 " " " " " 1880, " " 13 
 
 " The facts set forth in the foregoing tables are 
 worth more than all the theories and sophistries 
 contained in all the books that were ever printed 
 with a view to cajole farmers into supporting the 
 most stupendous and infamous svviiKlle that was 
 ever invented. There are thousands of farmers 
 that firmly believe that protection builds up a home 
 market at better prices, and they do not take the 
 pains to inquire into the basis of their belief. In- 
 vestigation is all that is necessary to convince any 
 man that protectionist writers are either dishonest 
 or ignorant. 
 
 " The facts contained in this article are matters 
 of history, accessible to protectionists as well as 
 free traders ; but I have yet to see a single state- 
 ment touching prices and exports of farm products 
 emanating from protectionist writers. They take 
 for granted that high wages result from protection ; 
 in other words, they think that because manufac- 
 turers are enabled to make large profits, they will 
 divide with the laborer. Strikes and tramps were 
 unknown under 'British free trade.'" — William 
 Manning.
 
 TARIFF. 227 
 
 Thus we see that a tariff does not favor immi- 
 gration, advance the price of farm products, nor 
 create a demand for home consumption. There 
 are several reasons that induce immigration, 
 among which are cheaper homes and better facil- 
 ities for living. 
 
 We are told that a high tariff advances wages, 
 but the facts show the contrary. It enables 
 manufacturers to increase the price of their arti- 
 cles, but that they share the profits with their 
 operatives is in no sense true. Holding absolute 
 control over labor, they give no more than its ab- 
 solute needs for existence, as the history of labor 
 struggles most amply show. 
 
 The following, from the " Saturday Express," 
 well illustrates this point : 
 
 "PKOTECTION. THE AVERAGE "WAGES OF LABOR 
 
 LESS THAN A DOLLAR A DAY. 
 
 " The ' New York Herald ' is not much impressed 
 by the demonstrated value of the present high tariff 
 to laboring men. Eeferring to the census bureau 
 statistics, in Bulletin No. 302, giving the number of 
 hands employed, the amount of wages paid, and the 
 value of the material used, and the value of all the 
 products for all the establishments of manufactur- 
 ing industry in each of the States or 'J'erritories as 
 returned at the census of 1880, the 'Herald' thus 
 comments : 
 
 " ' The protectionists having had full swing during 
 the decade under consideration, we look to find, of
 
 228 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 course, a most satisfactory and liberal outlay in the 
 way of wages to operatives, as set forth in this doc- 
 ument. 
 
 " ' The average number of hands employed is • 
 2,738,950 in 253,840 establishments; the amount of 
 wages paid is $947,919,674. Dividing one by the 
 other, we find the net average annual wages of our 
 manufacturing operatives to be $346.08 — less than a 
 dollar a day. And when it is considered that this 
 includes all those skilled operatives who are paid 
 high wages, it may be imagined that the rank and 
 file are not very well equipped financially for their 
 struggle with life ; house-rent, fi)od, clothing, fuel, 
 light — all to be supplied from less than a dollar a 
 day. And it is not to be supposed that this exhibit 
 occurs on account of the employment of women and 
 children ; the fact being, that these form only 26 per 
 cent of the whole number of operatives. The fig- 
 ures are : 
 
 Males above 16 years 2,025,279 
 
 Females" 15 " 351,753 
 
 Children and youths 181,918 
 
 *"This statement shows that the enormous gratuity 
 which is given every year by the protective tariff to 
 the manufacturers goes into their own jyocjcets., while 
 the operatives are ground down to the lowest 
 
 POSSIBLE WAGE. 
 
 " ' As the jDrotective tax comes also out of the 
 pockets of these very operatives, the rascally circle 
 is complete. 
 
 " ' But this is not the worst of it, for an examina- 
 tion of the census of 1870 makes the following show- 
 ing: In that year the number of hands employed 
 in the manufactories was 2,053,996, and the amount 
 of wages was $775,584,348, an annual average wage 
 of $374.64, or 131.56 more than in 1880. So that
 
 TARIFF. 229 
 
 the poor wages of the laboring man employed in 
 our manufacturing establishments have actually de- 
 clined in the ten years in the amount of 131.56 each, 
 or more than 8 per cent. While all this leads to 
 the suggestion that while the laboring classes are 
 being humbugged by the manufactures into the be- 
 lief that all their troubles originate with the capi- 
 talists and railroads, they may as well commit to 
 memory two pregnant facts : 
 
 '"1. That in the manufacturing establishments 
 the net average wages of the operative is $346.08 
 per year. 
 
 " ' 2. That even this paltry sum is 8 per cent less 
 than it was in 1870.' " 
 
 Both the dominant parties are clamoring for 
 tariff, and to make the thing appear different, the 
 Republicans cry out "' protective tariff," while the 
 Democrats want " tariff for revenue only." All 
 tariff is protective, unless confined to articles not 
 produced in the country. The only difference is 
 in the rate. High rate gives proportionate pro- 
 tection and proportionate revenue, if importations 
 are carried on. 
 
 " A tariff for protection gives to the manufactur- 
 ei'S a monopoly, in some cases so complete as to 
 drive the foreign article from our poi'ts. In such 
 cases, the government receives no revenue, but the 
 manufacturer can make a clear profit of the per cent 
 fixed by the tariff, all of which is eventually paid 
 by the consumer, and for which he receives no con- 
 sideration. To illusti-ate this, let us take the duties 
 ou blankets for the year 1871, and the quantity im-
 
 230 THE NEAV REPUBLIC. 
 
 ported. The duty on the four classes of blankets was 
 87, 88, 100, and 109 per cent, respectively. The 
 whole imports for that year amounted to $19,355, 
 and the tariff duties to $17,316. All the residue of 
 blankets pur.chased during that year were home pro- 
 ductions. The manufacturer has only to mark up 
 his price to realize about 100 per cent over the 
 price at which they would have been sold but for the 
 protective tariff. 
 
 '• Take boots and shoes as another illustration. 
 We imported none in 1871, and of course no reve- 
 nue was received on these articles in that year ; 
 yet the manufacturer had the benefit of a tariff of 
 35 per cent on each pair sold. If a pair of boots 
 were sold at $8, the protection the wearer paid to 
 the manufacturer was $2.80. The law compels the 
 farmer and laborer to jiay that sum as a bounty to 
 the manufacturer. 
 
 " On cotton goods the consumer jiays a duty of 
 from 85 to 03 per cent. For almost every article 
 of clothing worn by man, woman, or child, a duty 
 must be paid. The average is about 45 j^er cent on 
 the value. 
 
 " Prices are nearly uniform for the same classes 
 of goods, whether of foreign or domestic manufac- 
 ture. On imported articles the tariff is paid to the 
 government ; on domestic manufacture the duty is 
 paid to the manufacturer. This system compels 
 the poor man to contribute more than his fair pro- 
 portion to protect the already rich manufacturer. 
 To illustrate this, let us suppose that A is worth 
 §500,000, and has a family of four to clothe, while 
 B has nothing but his industry and perhaps a small 
 liomestead, and a family of eight to support. Both 
 families must be clothed and fed ; each must con- 
 tribute to the manufacturer the same rate of pro-
 
 TARIFF. 231 
 
 tection. The man with liis half a million of 
 property and family of four will probably purchase 
 as much for his family as the poor man will for his 
 iiamily of eight, each expending say |400. If the 
 duty on the pui'chase averages only 40 per cent, 
 each pays for the support of the government to 
 protect home manufactures $160, The sweat and 
 toil of the poor man contributes just as much as 
 the rich man's half-million. Or, supj^ose A is a 
 man without a family and has great wealth, and B 
 is dependent on a small farm for the support of 
 himself and family. A spends for clothing 1200, 
 while B is obliged to expend |400 for clothing for 
 his family. Hence, the labor of the poor man pays 
 twice as much as the capital of the rich man to 
 protect home industry and supj^ort the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 " To illustrate the difference between a revenue by 
 tariff and direct tax, the following instance is given. 
 A has $1,000 assessable property, consisting of a 
 homestead, and working tools, etc., and a family of 
 five to support. A national tax of one half of one 
 per cent on $30,000,000,000 (the assessable prop- 
 erty in the United States) would bring an income 
 of $150,000,000. B is worth $500,000 and has a 
 family of five to support. By direct tax, A would 
 pay $5, B would pay $2,500, A revenue by tariff 
 would compel A to pay say on $200 of dutiable 
 articles 40 per cent (the present tariff rate is over 
 43 per cent), which would be a tax of $80, instead of 
 $5 by direct tax ; and B, who would purchase say 
 $400 of dutiable articles, would pay $160 on $500,000,' 
 instead of $2,500 which he would pay by direct tax. 
 The injustice is as 80 : 1,000 : : 160 : 500,000. The 
 proportion would be 80 : 1,000 :: 160 : 2,000. 
 B escapes paying tax on $498,000 ! Thus we see
 
 232 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 that a revenue by tariff throws the burden on the 
 wealth-prodi;cers, while those who live on their 
 ncome nearly escape the burden." — D. C Cloud 
 in Monopolies and the People. 
 
 If this subject is not understood by the people, 
 capitalists will continue to enrich themselves un- 
 der the pretense of building up home industries 
 and creating a home market. The truth is, our 
 ports are open to immigration, drawn to this 
 country by the prospect of better means of 
 livelihood and at no expense to capitalists, to com- 
 jjcte with an already overcrowded labor market, 
 while the capitalists are protected and enriched 
 by the very class they rob and oppress. 
 
 If labor had its own it would need no protec- 
 tion. If the motive powers of nature and the 
 almost unlimited capacity of labor-saving ma- 
 chinery could be utilized for the laborer instead of 
 for the capitalist, with the inexhaustible resources 
 of the country, the people of the United States 
 could compete with the whole world. The ten- 
 dency of American genius is inventive and prac- 
 tical. This is shown in the manufacture of 
 watches. In Switzerland each piece is made by 
 hand, a necessarily slow and tedious process ; 
 while in this country the same work is done by 
 machinery, better and much cheaper ; and as a 
 consequence, American watches are finding a 
 market all over the world.
 
 TARIFF. 233 
 
 The vast wealth resources of our country and 
 the ability of the people to develop them are be- 
 yond computation. Regulation of the industries 
 mio-ht be so arrano-ed as to secure a balance in 
 all. With adequate facilities for exchange and 
 transportation, we could furnish manufactured 
 articles at rates that would allow us to export to 
 other countries and compete with them in their 
 own markets. Such stimulus to industry would 
 be almost inconceivable, and under proper re- 
 strictions and regulations no tariff, however high, 
 could affect the industrial interests of the people. 
 
 The American Samson has been shorn of his 
 strength while asleep, and like his prototype of 
 old his locks are reappearing, and he will seize 
 the pillars of the temple of monopoly, and bring 
 to destruction all his enemies. 
 
 It is humiliating to witness the gradual de- 
 struction of our commerce by the operation of 
 protective tariff. 
 
 " Tlie fact is well known that our carrying trade 
 has passed into the hands of other nations. That 
 vessels can be built more cheaply in foreign ports is 
 well known ; as also that American ship-owners 
 build or purchase their ships in Europe, sail under 
 English colors, and use English pa})ers, assigning as 
 a reason therefor their inability to ))ay the duty 
 upon the materials used in ship-building. So op- 
 pressive is this duty, and so damaging has it become 
 to our comraei-ce, that Congress is being urged to
 
 2o4 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 grant subsidies to shii>owners. As a necessary re- 
 sult of this system of protective tariff, the American - 
 built ships cannot carry freight as cheaply as those 
 built in foreign countries, and the producer must 
 be content to have his produce, already taxed to 
 half or two-thirds its value for inland transporta- 
 tion, taxed beyond the amount charged by the ves- 
 sels of other nations for ocean transportation, or 
 allow the ocean trade to remain as it now is in the 
 hands of England. 
 
 "American seamen must abandon the ocean or 
 sail under foreign flags. Protection has destroyed 
 our mercantile navy, and compelled our seamen to 
 seek employment elsewhere and in other occupa- 
 tions. With our vast agricultural wealth, demand- 
 ing the markets of the world, the protection policy 
 of the government effectually closes our j^orts to 
 other nations, while the farmer is obliged to accept 
 for his grain the low price that a home market al- 
 ready glutted will afford him." — Ibid. 
 
 Mr. Julian, who has been quoted in a former 
 chapter, said on the same occasion : 
 
 " Our tariff laws for years past, while jiretending 
 to favor the laborer, have been framed in the in- 
 terest of monopolists. The duty on coal, which is 
 a necessity of life, admits of no defense. To tax 
 coal is to tax the poor man's fire, to ' tax the force 
 of the steam-engine, to starve the laborer on whom 
 we depend for work.' 
 
 " The duty on leather has increased its cost an- 
 nually about ten million dollars, while the consum- 
 ers of boots and shoes have had to pay an increase 
 of some fifteen millions of dollars. The duty on 
 lumber has lai-gely increased its price, and is wholly
 
 TARIFF. 235 
 
 jDaid by the consumer. The duties on wool, salt, 
 and pig-iron impose heavy burdens on the poor, and, 
 like the other duties named, can scarcely be de- 
 fended, even granting the principle of protection to 
 be sound. This legislative discrimination in favor 
 of the richer and more favored ranks in society, and 
 against the laboring and producing masses, ought 
 to cease. Instead of being loaded down with bur- 
 dens and exactions for the aggrandizenient of the 
 few, they should share the ujistinted favor of the 
 government." 
 
 Thus the scheme for the aggrandizement of 
 capital, under the pretense of public good, has 
 been one of the most efficient and successful of 
 accomplishments. 
 
 It cannot be too often nor too strongly urged 
 upon the mind, the power and obstinacy of pre- 
 conceived opinion. Pride of opinion has mucli 
 to do with it. The reason why pertinacity of 
 opinion is so strong with some is because such 
 love of self is stronger than love of justice. 
 Neither can the importance of right-thinking be 
 overestimated. 
 
 In regard to the subject under consideration, 
 the accumulation of wealth by levying contribu- 
 tions upon the sources of it, not only the tempo- 
 ral and physical needs of society are seriously 
 disturbed, but the very basis upon which a better 
 system can be built is rapidly getting beyond the 
 reach of the people, and a system founded upon
 
 236 THE NEW llEPUBLIC. 
 
 rule and service will be adjusted upon an im- 
 movable and permanent basis. Such a system, 
 by controlling industry and gauging the produc- 
 er's share to the "minimum at which the supply 
 of labor can be kept u])," will be organized into 
 a perfect science, and the vast outlay of wealth 
 will be devoted to the arts of oppression instead 
 of being employed in the building up of a higher 
 civilization. 
 
 " The great aggregations of wealth," says Henry 
 George, " are like great trees which strike deep 
 roots and spread wide branches, and which, by 
 sucking up the moisture from the soil, and inter- 
 cepting the sunshine, stunt and kill the vegetation 
 around them. When capitals of millions of dollars 
 come in competition with capitals of thousands of 
 dollars, the smaller capitalists must be driven out of 
 the business or be destroyed. With great capital, 
 nothing can compete but great capital. Hence, ev- 
 ery aggregation of wealth increases the tendency to 
 the aggregation of wealth and decreases the possibil- 
 ity of the employee ever becoming more than an 
 employee ; compelling him to compete with his 
 fellows as to who will work cheapest for the great 
 capitalist — a competition that can have but one 
 result: that of forcing wages to the minimum at 
 which the supply of labor can be kept up. Where 
 we are is not so important as in what direction we 
 are going; and in the United States all tendencies 
 are clearly in this direction. A while ago any jotir- 
 neyman shoemaker could set up a business for him- 
 self with the savings of a few months, but now the 
 operative shoemaker could not in a lifetime go into 
 business for himself.
 
 TARIFF. 237 
 
 " And now that great capital has entered agricul- 
 ture, it must be with the same results. The large 
 farmer who can buy the latest machinery at the 
 lowest cash prices and use it at to the best advan- 
 tages ; who can run a straight furrow for miles ; 
 who can make special rates with railroad companies, 
 take advantage of the market, and sell in large lots 
 for the least commission — must drive out the small 
 farmer of the early American tyj^e, just as the shoe 
 factory has driven out the journeyman shoemaker. 
 And this is going on to-day." — Henry George. 
 
 Observing and reflective minds throughout the 
 country perceive the inevitable consequences of 
 present conditions, and it is only for the people to 
 realize the direction in which they are going to 
 arrest the fatal tendenc3^ 
 
 One of the causes of this condition and this in- 
 evitable tendency is the operation of our tariff 
 system. At first, the weak and helpless condi- 
 tion of manufacturing industries invited and 
 seemed to demand protection, and it offered such 
 convenient facilities for the collection of revenue 
 thsit it was not difficult to Inaugurate the system. 
 
 As a system of revenue it is grossly unjust, be- 
 cause it lays the burden of taxation upon labor 
 instead of on property, and as a system of pro- 
 tection, it protects the wolf instead of the lamb. 
 
 " Nature creates the middle classes," says Pro- 
 fessor Swing ; " the two extremes, being of human 
 origin, are the outgrowth of false and periiicious
 
 238 TITE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 systems of political economy, class laws, and spe- 
 cial legislation, and one is the inevitable result of 
 the other." This states in general terms the sub- 
 stance of the Avhole matter, and a prominent fea- 
 ture of " false and pernicious systems of political 
 economy " is a tax laid on imported commodities 
 " to protect home industries and furnish a reve- 
 nue for the government." 
 
 The necessity for raising a revenue to meet the 
 expenditures of the civil war served as an excuse 
 to increase the rate and enlarge the class of 
 articles made dutiable, and now the average ad 
 valorem tax is over 43 per cent and the list of 
 articles has swelled to the volume of three thou- 
 sand. On some of them tlie rate has reached the 
 point of prohibition of importation. In such cases 
 the home manufacturer marks his price accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 The remedy has already been hinted at. Throw 
 off the restraints on labor, give it the benefits of 
 a true medium of excliange, freedom from land 
 monopoly, a co-operative system in all public en- 
 terprises, and man's inventive genius in mechan- 
 ical invention, and with the vast and inexhausti- 
 ble resources of potential wealth, the power of 
 foreign competition would no longer serve as an 
 excuse to enrich capital by impoverishing labor, 
 and direct taxation, the only just method of rals-
 
 TARIFF. 239 
 
 ing a revenue, would be the source for govern- 
 ment expenditures. 
 
 Another serious objection to the tariff system 
 is the corruption that springs from the patronage 
 of the government in appointing officers to con- 
 duct it. The power and importance of the ad- 
 ministi'ation consists in a great measure in the 
 appointment of this service, and the strife for gov- 
 ernment control itensifies party spirit to such an 
 extent that politicians are enabled to "take cap- 
 tive " the will of the people, and thus perpetuate 
 existing evils. 
 
 The enormous expense of collection is another 
 objection. Revenue by direct tax could be col- 
 lected by the metliod for the collection of state 
 tax, and along with it, thus saving to the people 
 an army of custom-house officers and others con- 
 nected with the collection of customs. 
 
 It is the business of politicians to mystify by 
 sophistries and half-truths with wrong conclu- 
 sions. There has been so much said and written 
 on this subject, and so many falsities and theoret- 
 ical speculations, that it is no difficult matter to 
 keep the agitation up for political purposes. The 
 politician presumes for his strength and success 
 upon the people's ignorance, but is cunning 
 enough not to let them suspect his trick. With 
 a show of giving them credit for much wisdom
 
 240 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 and sagacity, he offers them the merest shams 
 and pretenses, and depends on his art and soph- 
 istry in pahiiing them off as sound doctrine. To 
 insure success, the politicians itensify and im- 
 bitter party spirit to give direction to popular 
 thought, and so prevent the examination and dis- 
 cussion of true principles of government. Thus 
 they make the people's strifes and dissentions 
 their strength.
 
 CORPORATIONS. 241 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 CORPORATIONS. 
 
 ""Work, ■rt^ork, work ; 
 
 My labor never flags ; 
 And what are its wages ? A bed of straw, 
 
 A crust of bread — and rags. 
 That shattered roof, and this naked floor, 
 
 A table, a broken chair ; 
 And a wall so blank my shadow I thank 
 
 For sometimes falling there." 
 
 " A CORPORATION" is a civil institution, or, as it is 
 sometimes termed, ' a body politic' the essential 
 character of which is that it has a legal existence 
 as a person under the name given it by legislative 
 authority, either by express charter or by prescrip- 
 tion which implies a charter." — American Cyclo- 
 pedia. 
 
 Corporations for the aggregation and accumu- 
 lation of wealth are of comparatively modern 
 origin. Recent writers on political economy 
 seem to turn their attention to the consideration 
 of the most effective methods of concentrating 
 wealth and accumulating large capital for the 
 production of wealth as the leading object of 
 government ; and corporations are the most effi- 
 cient instrumentalities for that purpose. 
 
 A corporation has a legal existence as a per- 
 il
 
 242 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 son. While the rights of a person are limited to 
 his natural life, and he is restrained by conscien- 
 tious considerations and social dependencies, cor- 
 porations are renewed in their existence, and 
 having no obligations to society, they ai'e free to 
 act solely in the interests for which they are 
 created, therefore relentless in their greed and 
 despotic In their rule. 
 
 " The king of England lives forever. He passes 
 through many forms, but he does not die. He is a 
 great conquerer, a great warrior, a vain and arro- 
 gant woman, a fop, a libertine, an idiot, a states- 
 man, sage, and soldier, a fierce and cruel tyrant, a 
 stupid beer-drinker, a sober matron; but all the 
 time king. 
 
 " So a corporation lives forever. It is even worse 
 than a king, for it has no human feeling or emo- 
 tion. Its motive power is profit, and its only in- 
 spiration is avarice. The corporation is a greater 
 menace than noble or king." 
 
 It is a law of nature that the greater attracts 
 the less. All bodies attract directly in propor- 
 tion to their quantity of matter. The principle 
 holds good in political economy. A number of 
 natural persons, having their natural rights rec- 
 ognized by law, associate into a body politic for 
 some financial or industrial enterprise, combine 
 their capital, and become a power much greater 
 than their dissociate powers, which, however, re- 
 main intact.
 
 CORPORATIONS. 243 
 
 A corporation, having been formed for a spe- 
 cial purpose, is bound to its accomplishment ; for 
 that, it exists. A power is created hy law, vest- 
 ing in individuals rights in addition to their 
 natural rights. Here is a disturbance of po- 
 litical equilibrium, and the whole fabric is 
 affected. These combine, and thus the power of 
 vested rights gains the ascendency, and a few 
 control the many. Sometimes a single individ- 
 ual becomes a " body politic," having previously 
 associated himself with others and gained a foot- 
 hold by indomitable energy and deep forethought, 
 outstripes his fellows in the race and gains a su- 
 preme control. How nearly this condition of 
 things is reached may be seen in the person of 
 Jay Gould. Another instance is William Van- 
 derbilt, who within the year has accumulated 
 120,000,000. 
 
 The fact that not one cent of this vast sum 
 was earned or produced by him will assist in re- 
 alizing the gross outrage this is upon labor, and 
 how destructive to a free government such a vast 
 power becomes. 
 
 It is a general opinion that corporations arc 
 necessary for carrying on great enterprises re- 
 quiring innnense outlay of capital. It must be 
 remembered that in public enterprises all are 
 equally interested, and a fund should be furnished
 
 244 THE NEW REPUBLIC, 
 
 from the public treasury to curry on these enter- 
 prises, and conducted by the respective jurisdic- 
 tions for which they were intended ; then all 
 would be equal recipients in its benefits. 
 
 Thus a highway or bridge, the improvement 
 of a navigable stream, a canal or the building of 
 a railway or telegraph line, should be carried 
 on for the benefit of the township, county, state, 
 or general government, according to the conven- 
 ience and requirements of each. 
 
 The canal system of the State of New York 
 affords demonstrable proof of the practicability of 
 state corporations. 
 
 " De Witt Clinton broke with his own hand the 
 ground in the beginning of the enterprise (the Erie 
 Canal), July 4, 1817; and overcoming constant, un- 
 remitting, and factious resistance, he had the feli- 
 city of being borne, in October, 1825, in a barge on 
 the artificial river which he seemed lo all to have 
 constri¥)ted from Lake Erie to the bay of New 
 York, while bells were ringing and cannons saluted 
 him at every stage of the imposing progress. No 
 sooner had that great work been undertaken, in 
 1817, than the population of the State began to 
 swell with augmentation from other States and 
 from abroad ; prosperity became universal ; old 
 towns and cities expanded, and new cities rose and 
 multiplied ; agriculture, manufacture, and com- 
 merce quickened in their movements, and wealth 
 flowed in upon the State from all directions." — 
 American (Jyclopedia.
 
 CORPORATIONS. 245 
 
 The New York State canals have an aorjjreo-ate 
 length of 886 miles. 
 
 "The gross earnhigs of these canals for the 
 four years from September 30, 1860, to 1864 was 
 817,722,384. After paying the expenses of superin- 
 tendence and ordinary repairs for the same period, 
 the net balance of surplus revenue was §14,442,408." 
 
 This is an income to the State of $3,610,602 a 
 year, and shows how much could be saved to 
 the people if the government conducted all pub- 
 lic enterprises. 
 
 "De Witt Clinton had the good fortune to ma- 
 ture the system of finance which enabled the State, 
 unconscious of expense or care^ to begin and carry 
 out his policy of internal improvement." — Ameri- 
 can Cyclopedia. 
 
 How much of wise political economy is ex- 
 pressed in this brief statement ! The rapid 
 increase of population, the universal prosperity, 
 the multiplicity of towns and cities, the quicken- 
 ing of industries and the increase of wealth, the 
 wisdom and efficiency of their management, and 
 the financial measures, " unconscious of expense 
 or care," in this vast and magnificent enterprise 
 carried on by a State corporation. Why do not 
 other statesmen arise and put into practice what 
 is here so clearly demonstated? Corporate 
 greed rules the nation, and a score of De Witt
 
 246 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 Clintons, working in unison and with most per- 
 sistent energy, could do nothing should they at- 
 tempt in opposition to corporations. This greedy 
 monster must be throttled, his power crushed 
 out, and EQUALITY OF EIGHTS established be- 
 fore liberty can be restored. 
 
 Our postal system is another instance in which 
 an extensive and complicated enterprise is car- 
 ried on. Our educational system and military 
 service are other proofs of the ability for public 
 enterprises on a vast scale to be conducted by 
 the government. 
 
 In all enterprises of a private character, no one 
 has a right to appropriate more legal power than 
 another, because the rights of all are equal ; and 
 to vest special power in some ignores the princi- 
 ples upon which our independence was won and 
 renders a free government impossible. 
 
 " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that 
 all men are created equal." There can be no 
 equality where one citizen is vested with legal 
 power to do what another is forbidden to do. 
 The objector may urge that all have a right to 
 incorporate. If for private purposes, then no 
 one would be the gainer. The quality of corpo- 
 rate power consists in giving to the incorporators 
 an advantage over others, lor if nothing is gained, 
 there is no object in incorporating.
 
 CORPORATIONS.* 247 
 
 A receives a charter authorizing him to erect 
 a bridge, and guarantees that no other bridge 
 shall be built within three miles of it on the 
 same stream. Why is this special privilege giv- 
 en to A ? It is said to induce him to build the 
 bridge, and a maximum toll is prescribed to pro- 
 tect the public from extortion. His charter 
 grants him a power; otherwise, why the re- 
 straint ? 
 
 This is the simplest case in which a corpora- 
 tion can exist, and yet it is an injustice. Within 
 twenty-five years, corporations have extended to 
 all enterprises where capital can be best invested 
 and industry monopolized. 
 
 " The best lawyers, the best inventors, the best 
 business men, are all on the pay-roll of the monopo- 
 lists. The corporations have not only monopolized 
 the means of producing wealth, but they are even 
 forcing a ' corner ' in brains. In attracting to them- 
 selves the service of the most active and vigor- 
 ous intellects and strongest wills, the confederate 
 monopolies are doubly intrenched. The past his- 
 tory of the world gives no record of any sys- 
 tem of oppression so insidious, so strong, and so 
 all-pervading as that of the jiredatory corporations 
 which are absorbing the substance and undermining 
 the liberties of the American people." 
 
 They are the machinery by which the robbery 
 of the people is accomplished. Banking corpor- 
 ations control the currency of the nation, a power
 
 248 TIIE NEW KEPUBLIC. 
 
 incalculable and inconceivable. The volume and 
 stability or instability of the circulating medium 
 directly affects the jjrice of commodities ; it de^ 
 termines the rate of interest by w^hich millions 
 are taken from labor to enrich corporations. 
 
 Had the men who were instrumental in the 
 creation of these banking corporations been con- 
 scientious, there would have been some palliation 
 and some hope that they would relinquish their 
 powder when they were convinced of the wrong ; 
 but when we know that they are thoroughly 
 familiar with the results and aimed to bring them 
 about, we can feel nothing but execration for the 
 crimes they are committing. They know the ef- 
 fects of contraction and expansion of the curren- 
 cy. They must therefore be declared guilty of 
 deliberate intent to rob the nation of billions of 
 dollars, with the full knowledge that it would 
 drive multitudes to bankruptcy and ruin. To 
 sanction this diabolical scheme by legalizing it 
 only adds to its perfidy by investing it with the 
 authorit}^ of the government. And these men 
 are honored and trusted, and permitted to con- 
 tinue to control the currency and rule prices. 
 
 " The people sleep in ignorance, or such a thing 
 could not be jjossible. When they awake, God 
 have mercy on their oppressors, for they will not." 
 — Leo Miller.
 
 CORPORATIONS. 249 
 
 It is by corporations that transportation is car- 
 ried on. Combinations are effected, and, with 
 the exception of the canal system above noted, 
 the entire carrying trade is monopolized; dis- 
 criminations are made, the people are insulted 
 and robbed and placed at their mercy. Although 
 demanding a paying rate on an enormous outlay 
 of capital (watered stock), yet they refuse to pay 
 taxes on an assessment of one-fourth of the value 
 of their roads, to say nothing of the immense sub- 
 sidies granted to them by the government. 
 
 And now ex-Senator Conkling, in defending a 
 corporation that refused to pay its taxes and ap- 
 ^Dealed the case to the United States Supreme 
 Court, declares it to all intents and purposes a 
 person in law, and as such is to be protected by 
 the provisions of the Federal Constitution, amend- 
 ed Article XIV. Sec. 1, under the following 
 clause : " Nor shall any State deprive any person 
 of life, liberty, or property, without due process 
 of law, nor deny to any pex'son within its juris- 
 diction the equal protection of the laws" ; thus 
 making a corporation the agent of an outrageous 
 robbery, and the United States Constitution the 
 authority for it. 
 
 Vast aggregations of capital in manufacturing 
 enterprises are effected by corporations which 
 exercise their power in securing the protection 
 11*
 
 250 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 of the government in laying high duties on im- 
 poi'ted commodities, and thus imposing a heavy 
 and unjust burden on hibor. 
 
 The lines of communication for intelligence 
 are controlled by corporations. The advantage 
 of this control is of incalculable value. The 
 state of the market, both foreign and domestic, 
 the fluctuations in the stock market, the schemes 
 and manipulations in political transactions, and 
 shaping intelligence for the press cannot be over- 
 estimated ; to say nothing of the immense reve- 
 nues derived from it. 
 
 Corporations for insurance business and stock 
 operations, mining associations, in trade, and 
 even in agriculture, organize their forces and 
 carry on their operations to control labor. They 
 are conspiracies against labor that seek to appro- 
 priate its fruits and enslave the toiler ; they are 
 usurpations of natural rights, inspired by greed 
 and for self-aggrandizement. In other countries, 
 rights, privileges, and powers are recognized as 
 hereditary ; in this they are secured by legal 
 enactments. In other countries, class distinctions 
 of rich and poor, of high and low, bond and 
 free, are supported by heredity ; in this they are 
 established hy law. While they increase with 
 unexampled rapidity, there is neither time nor 
 opportunity for culture, and indeed, no inclina'
 
 CORPORATIONS. 251 
 
 tlon for It ; in other countries the aristocracy 
 support their distinction by superior intelligence 
 and culture, and that class possess genuine merit ; 
 but our "aristocracy," founded on wealth, are 
 characterized by arrogance, presumption, greed, 
 tyranny, and aping the style and manners of 
 foreign aristocracy, with all their vices, but with- 
 out their virtues. 
 
 Wealth, combined and employed as capital, 
 possesses vastly more power than if employed in 
 separate enterprises. Let twenty men with 
 $5,000 each associate their capital, or let them 
 employ it separately. Suppose it to be for the 
 manufactuae of woolen goods. The grounds, 
 sites, and buildings would be important items in 
 the estimate, and would be a savino- in a com- 
 bined capital of more than half in them. The 
 purchase of machinei-y for a single establish- 
 ment with a capital of $100,000 would be much 
 more advantageous and economical than for 
 twenty manufactories of $5,000 each ; the num- 
 ber of operatives, overseers, and skilled laborers 
 would be proportionally less in one large estab- 
 lishment, the advantages of the purchase of stock 
 and the sale of goods would also correspond. 
 Taking all these advantages, in favor of large 
 establishments — for the difference is not gain — 
 we find thcni to be greatly in favor of large
 
 252 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 capital. Any business enlarged is proportion- 
 ately more profitable. If a farmer should divide 
 his farm and carry on two distinct operations, with 
 two sets of buildings, the necessary additional 
 fencing implements, and the added care of man- 
 gement, he would see the benefit of combination. 
 Corporations secure all these advantages by the 
 creation of a separate " person " in law, exercising 
 the rights and prerogatives of an individual, with 
 full power to push his enterprises without restraint 
 of conscience, social dependence, or responsibil- 
 ity. These legal robbers associate, conspire, and 
 confederate, being organized for the sole purpose 
 of gain, and free from all obligations to society, 
 they build up in few hands immense power to 
 prey upon the people and rob them of the nat- 
 ural rights — nay, worse : through the machinery 
 of government they compel the people to carry 
 on these outrages against themselves ! 
 
 There is one class of citizens — the wage-earners 
 — who seem to be, by their poverty and utter de- 
 pendence on corporate capital, hopelessly lost. 
 They have gone over " to the bleak barrens and 
 ice-walled shores of the frozen zone of poverty." 
 The millions they create serve to perpetuate 
 their poverty, and the ballots they hold have 
 placed them in the condition of slavery, and 
 continue to hold them there. Poverty is the
 
 CORPORATIONS. 253 
 
 greatest foe to moi'ality and intelligence. It 
 dulls the finer sensibilities, and takes away all 
 aspiration for anything manlike and noble ; and 
 by constant and daily contact with physical 
 forces, blunts and hardens the whole being. 
 Wearied and worn with toil, one seeks rest and 
 sleep, only to awaken to renewed toil and weari- 
 ness. No time, no means, no opportunity, and 
 finally no desire for intellectual and moral cul- 
 ture, and as the " weary plowman plods his way," 
 so plod the weary toilers, victims to the greed 
 and tyranny of corporate power. 
 
 Professor Carey says : " Under the established 
 systems, the middle classes tend to pass away, 
 and its condition is well expi*essed by the term, 
 ' the uneasy class.' There is a permanent strife 
 for life, and man endeavoring to snatch the bread 
 from his neighbor's moutli." The wao;e-earner 
 may be consigned to the category of slavery, the 
 " middle class " are on their way, and no remedy 
 now prescribed, no powers now invoked, will 
 stay them from the same fate. Instead of there 
 being anything to prevent the enslavement of the 
 laborer, there is everything to facilitate it. The 
 government is the agency employed by corpora- 
 tions, and the law the instrumentality by which 
 millionaires and paupers arc made. 
 
 What does suffrage amount to when votes can
 
 254 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 be boiiglit at a mere nouiiual price on election 
 clay, or dictated by fear of starvation ? It serves 
 to add to the political power of wealth, and the 
 establishment of tyranny. 
 
 In spite of all the j)recautions of the people of 
 California to guard and protect their liberties by 
 constitutional enactment, the insidious power of 
 corjjorations crept in and intrenched itself in its 
 provisions. The artful framers set out with a 
 "Declaration of Eights" in the followino; Ian- 
 guage : 
 
 "All men are by nature free and independent, 
 and have certain inalienable rights, among which 
 are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty ; 
 acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and 
 pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness. 
 
 " All political power is in the people. Govern- 
 ment is instituted for th.e jirotection, s°.curity, and 
 benefit of the people, and they have the right to 
 alter or reform the same whenever the public good 
 may require it." 
 
 In section 4, article 12, we find the following 
 definition of " corporation" : 
 
 "The term 'corporations' as used in this article 
 shall be construed to include all associations and 
 joint-stock companies having any of the powers or 
 privileges of corporations 7iot possessed by i?idivkl- 
 uals or partnerships ; and all corporations shall 
 have the right to sue and be sued in all courts in 
 like cases as natural persons."
 
 CORPORATIONS. 255 
 
 The new Constitution of Cfiliforniji declares, 
 " All men are by nature free and independent, 
 and have certain inalienable rights" ; and then in 
 art. 12, sec. 4, it proceeds to alienate them by 
 declaring corporations "to include all associations 
 .... having any of the powers or privileges of 
 corporations not i^ossessed by individuals^ Here 
 we have a declaration of personal rights, and a 
 provision in the same instrument conferring 
 "powers and privileges" on corporations "not 
 possessed by individuals and partnerships." 
 
 The aim and intent of corporate power is the 
 aggrandizement of the few by the accumulation 
 of wealth. The productive power evoked from 
 heat and electricity applied to mechanical Inven- 
 tion has increased the means for creating wealth 
 a hundred-fold, and by means of corporations 
 this power is utilized in the hands of the few. 
 Hence, it is impossible to maintain political equal- 
 ity, without which a republic cannot exist. 
 
 In all cases the tendency of advancing civiliza- 
 tion is the increase of jiower of producing wealth 
 to meet the increasino; needs advancinjj civiliza- 
 tion creates. Every power that increases the 
 production of wealth is monopolized by corpora- 
 tions by virtue of aggregated capital and the ex- 
 ercise of vested " rights." The laborer has no 
 more interest in the production of wealth than
 
 256 THE ^'EW EEPUBLIC. 
 
 the Cuban slave, and Is reduced to wages upon 
 which all his interests concentrate. 
 
 Thus robbed of all the benefits of productive 
 jiower, labor is reduced to utter dependence on 
 those who exercise it ; machinery takes the place 
 of manual labor, and the capitalist owns the one 
 and controls the other. This control is by the 
 agency of corporations ; therefore corporations 
 are the enemies of republicanism, and the two 
 cannot co-exist in the same government. By cor- 
 porations, in the midst of wealth poverty exists, 
 political equality is destroyed, and society separ- 
 ated into ever-receding divisions of proud and 
 haughty snobs and poor and humble slaves. Cor- 
 porations serve the purpose of a huge wedge, 
 driven not under society as a whole to lift it up, 
 but in the midst of it, forcing one part up and 
 the other down, and destroying the equality ; 
 and thus the lower stratum loses the essential 
 qusvlities of manhood and becomes a slave, a ma- 
 chine, a commodity in character and destiny. 
 
 The question may arise in the present condi- 
 tion of society. How can the vast enterprises for 
 the production of wealth be carried on without 
 corporations ? Even the manufacture of a pin 
 requires a capital expressed by scores of thou- 
 sands, and so great is the division of labor that 
 individual enterprise seems out of the question.
 
 CORPOKATIO.XS, 257 
 
 Co-operation is the answer. Let the producer 
 have an equitable interest in the outcome of the 
 enterprise. The experience of the Rochdale en- 
 terjn'ise in England, and others of still greater 
 magnitude, not only demonstrate the practica- 
 bility of co-operation, but the fact that it has 
 gone into practical operation. The reader is re- 
 ferred to Mr. Holyoke's works. 
 
 In individual enterprises, all are entitled to an 
 equal opportunity to acquire the means of life, 
 and the combination of capital for the advantages 
 it gives should be shared by all in proportion 
 to their contribution in labor or capital. We 
 must not lose sight of the fact that people 
 have something else to do besides " making 
 money." The production of wealth as an end 
 is vitiating and degrading. Wealth is only the 
 preliminary condition, tlie means to an end — the 
 development and culture, the harmonization and 
 refinement, the vigor and power of all the attri- 
 butes of man, the happiness of the individual in 
 the welfare of the whole. 
 
 In regard to public enterprises and the ability 
 of the people to operate them by government 
 agency, let the canal system of New York, that 
 brings annually a net income of millions to the 
 State, be the answer. Our postal system, with 
 its vast ramifications and its complicated opera-
 
 258 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 tions, is so familiar that it is overlooked. So 
 necessary has it become that all enterprises, 
 public and private, would be so crippled that 
 business would soon cease. 
 
 The difference between what is and what 
 would be if all the appliances man is capable of 
 bringing to bear on the- welfare of society, is in- 
 conceivable. Not without too much elaboration, 
 is it possible to notice some of the benefits that 
 would accrue from the i*elegation of the powers 
 and privileges of private corporations to those of 
 a public character. The people would demand 
 a volume of currency equal to the demand of 
 trade and industry; then time-transactions of 
 debts and credits would no longer exist. This 
 in itself would bring about a change in public 
 affairs more marked than one in a thousand can 
 conceive. It would overthrow the credit system, 
 by which so many billions of dollars are taken 
 from labor. A vast army of lawyers who now 
 flourish and fatten would be compelled to look 
 elsewhere for support. A multitude of jurors 
 and witnesses would be released from service. 
 An immense and complicated system of govern^ 
 ment machinery would be dispensed with, and 
 justice would be meted out to the people. All 
 public service would be done at a reasonable 
 cost, and wealth would flow in to the producer,
 
 CORPORATIONS. 259 
 
 who would have the tune, opportunity, means, 
 and disposition to apply it to the higiiest and 
 best uses. The time for labor would be abridged, 
 and the curse of poverty, like a darkening mist, 
 would disappear before the light of a higher 
 intelligence. The social forces that now are 
 expended in strife and contention would be 
 employed in building up, refining, and harmon- 
 izing the social fabric. 
 
 The following clear and forcible presentation 
 is from the pen of Henry George, author of 
 " Progress and Poverty " : 
 
 "The growth of morality consequent upon the 
 cessation of want would tend to a like diminution 
 in other civil business of the courts, which could be 
 hastened by the adoption of the common-sense 
 proposition of Bentham to abolish all laws for the 
 collection of debts and the enforcement of private 
 contracts. The rise of wages, the opening of op- 
 ])ortunities for all to make an easy and comfortable 
 living, would at once lessen, and would soon elim- 
 inate from society the thieves, swindlers, and other 
 classes of criminals, who spring from the unequal 
 distribution of wealth. Thus the administration of 
 tlie criminal law, with all its paraphernalia of police- 
 men, detectives, prisons, and penitentiaries, would, 
 like the administration of the civil law, cease to 
 make such a drain upon the vital force and atten- 
 tion of society. We should get rid, not only of 
 many judges, bailiffs, clerks, and prison-keepers, 
 but of the great host of lawyers who are now main- 
 tained at the expense of producers ; and talent now
 
 260 THE NEW REPUBLIC. * 
 
 wasted in legal subtleties would be turned to higher 
 pursuits. 
 
 "The legislative, judicial, and executive func- 
 tions of government would in this way be vasily 
 simplified ; nor can I think that the public debts 
 and the standing armies, which are historically the 
 outgrowth of the change from feudal to allodial 
 tenures, would long remain after the reversion to 
 the old idea that the land of a country is the com- 
 mon right of the people of the country 
 
 " Society would thus approach the ideal of Jef- 
 fei'sonian democracy, the promised land of Herbert 
 Spencer, the abolition of government ; but of gov- 
 ernment only as a directing and repressive power. 
 It would at the same time and in the same degree 
 become possible for it to realize the dream of social- 
 ism. All this simplification and abrogation of the 
 present functions of government would m.ake j^os- 
 sible the assumption of certain other functions 
 which are now pressing for recognition, 
 
 " Government could take upon itself the trans- 
 mission of messages by telegraph as well as by 
 mail, of building and operating railroads as well as 
 of oj^ening and maintaining common roads. VV^ith 
 present functions so simplified and reduced, func- 
 tions such as could be assumed without danger or 
 strain, and would be under the supervision of pub- 
 lic attention, which is now distracted 
 
 " We might not establish j^ublic tables — they 
 would be unnecessary ; but we could establish pub- 
 lic baths, museums, libraries, gardens, lecture-rooms, 
 music and dancing halls, theatei's, universities, tech- 
 nical schools, shooting galleries, play-grounds, gym- 
 nasiums, etc. 
 
 " Heat, light, and motive power, as well as water, 
 might be conducted through our streets at public
 
 CORPORATIONS. 261 
 
 expense; our roads be lined with fruit trees, dis- 
 coverers and inventors rewarded, scientific investi- 
 gations supported, and in a thousand ways the 
 public revenues made to foster efforts for the pub- 
 lic benefit. 
 
 " We should reach the ideal of the socialist, but 
 not through government repression. Government 
 would change its character, and would become the 
 administration of a great co-operative society. It 
 would become merely the agency by which the 
 common property was administered for the com- 
 mon benefit. 
 
 " Does this seem impracticable ? Consider for a 
 moment the vast changes that would be wrought in 
 social life by a change which would assure to labor 
 its full reward ; which would banish want and the 
 fear of waut, and give to the humblest freedom to 
 develop in natural symmetry. 
 
 " In thinking of the possibilities of social organi- 
 zation, we are apt to assume that greed is the 
 strongest of human motives, and that systems of 
 administration can only be safely based upon the 
 idea that the fear of punishment is necessary to 
 keep men honest, that selfish interests are always 
 stronger than general interests. Nothing could be 
 farther from the truth. 
 
 " From whence springs this lust for gain, to grat- 
 ify which men tread everything pure and noble 
 under their feet ; to which they sacrifice all the 
 higher possibilities of life ; which converts civility 
 into a hollow pretense, patriotism into a sham^ and 
 religion into hyprocrisy ; which makes so much of 
 civilized existence an Ishmaelitish Warfare, of which 
 the weapons are cunning and fraud? 
 
 " Does it not spring from the existence of want? 
 .... Poverty is the open-mouthed, relentless
 
 262 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 hell, which yawns beneath civilized society. And 
 
 it is hell enough For poverty is not 
 
 merely deprivation : it means shame, degradation, 
 the searing of the most sensitive parts of our moral 
 and mental nature as with hot irons ; the denial of 
 the strongest impulses and the sweetest affections ; 
 the wrenching of the most vital nerves. 
 
 " You love your wife, you love your children ; but 
 would it not be easier to see them die than to see 
 them reduced to the pinch of want, in which large 
 classes in every highly civilized community live ? 
 The strongest of animal passions is that with which 
 we cling to life ; but it is an every-day occurrence 
 in civilized societies for men to put poison to thejr 
 mouths or pistols to their heads from fear of pov- 
 erty ; and for one who does this there are probably 
 a hundred who have the desire, but are restrained 
 by instinctive shrinking, by religious considerations, 
 or by family ties. 
 
 " From this hell of poverty it is but natural that 
 men should make every effort to escape. With the 
 impulse to self-jjreservation and self-gratification 
 combine nobler feelings, and love as well as fear 
 urges in the struggle. Many a man does a mean 
 thing, a dishonest thing, a greedy and a grasping and 
 unjust thing, in the effort to place above want or 
 the fear of want mother or Avife or children 
 
 " How sweet to the storm-stricken seems the safe 
 harbor, food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, 
 warmth to the shivering, rest to the weary, power 
 to the weak, knowledge to him in whom the intel- 
 lectual yearnings of the soul have been aroused ! 
 
 " And thus the sting of want and the fear of want 
 make men admire above all things the possession of 
 riches, and to become wealthy is to become respect- 
 ed and admired and influential. Get money —
 
 CORPORATIONS. 263 
 
 honestly if you can, but at any rate, get money. 
 This is the lesson that society is daily and hourly 
 dinning in the ears of its members. Men instinct- 
 ively admire virtue and truth, but the sting of 
 want and the fear of want make them even more 
 strongly admire the rich and sympathize with the 
 fortunate. It is well to be honest and just, and 
 men will commend it; but he who by fraud and in- 
 justice gets him a million dollars will have more 
 respect and admiration and influence, more eye- 
 service and lip-service, if not heart-service, than he 
 who refuses it 
 
 " Whatever is potent for evil may be made potent 
 for good. The change I have proposed would de- 
 stroy the conditions that distort impulses in them- 
 selves beneficent, and would transmute the forces 
 that r )W tend to disintegrate society into forces 
 which would tend to unite and purify it. 
 
 " Give labor a free field and its full earnings, take 
 for the benefit of the whole community that fund 
 which the growth of the community creates, and 
 want and the fear of want would be gone. The 
 springs of production would be set free, and the 
 enormous increase of wealth would give the poorest 
 ample comfort. Men would no more worry about 
 finding employment than they worry about finding 
 air to breathe ; they need have* no more care about 
 physical necessities than do the lilies of the field, 
 Tlie progress of science, the march of invention, the 
 difiusion of knowledge, would bring their benefits 
 to all. 
 
 " With this abolition of want and the fear of want, 
 the admiration of riches would decay, and men would 
 seek the respect and approbation of their fellows in 
 other modes than by the acquisition and display of 
 wealth. In this way there would be brought to the
 
 2G4 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 managemeut of public affairs and tht administration 
 of common funds the skill, the attention, the fidel- 
 ity and integrity that can now only be secured for 
 private interests; and a railroad oi' gas-works might 
 be operated on public account, not only more econ- 
 nomically and efficiently than as at present under 
 joint-stock management, but as economically and 
 efficiently as would be possible under a single owner- 
 ship 
 
 "There are people into whose heads it never 
 enters to conceive of any better state of society 
 tiian that which now exists ; who imagine that the 
 idea that there could be a state of society in which 
 greed would be banished, prisons stand empty, in- 
 dividual interests be subordinated to general inter- 
 ests, and no one seek to rob or to oppress his neigh- 
 bor, is but the dream of impracticable dreameis, for 
 whom these practical, level-headed men who pride 
 themselves on recognizing facts as they are have a 
 hearty contempt. But such men — though some of 
 them write books, and some of them occupy the 
 chairs of universities, and some of them stand in 
 the pulpit — do not think. If they wei-e accustomed 
 to dine in such eating-houses as are to be found in 
 the lower quarters of London and Paris, where the 
 knives and forks are chained to the table, they 
 would deem it the natural, ineradicable disposition 
 of man to carry off the knife and fork with which 
 he has eaten. 
 
 " Take a cumpany of well-bred men and women 
 dining together : there is no struggling fur food, no 
 attempt on the part of anyone to get more than his 
 neighbor, no attempt to gorge or carry off. On the 
 contrary, each one is anxious to help his neighbor 
 before he partakes himself ; to offer to others the 
 best, rather than pick it out for himself; and should
 
 COKPORATIONS. 265 
 
 any one show the slightest disj^osition to prefer the 
 gratification of his own appetite to that of the 
 others, or in any way to act the pig or pilferer, the 
 swift and heavy penalty of social contempt and 
 ostracism would show how such conduct is repro- 
 bated by common opinion. All this is so common 
 as to excite no remark; as to seem the natural 
 state of things : yet it is no more natural that men 
 should not be greedy of food than that they should 
 not be greedy of wealth. They are, greedy of food 
 when they are not assui-ed that there will be a fair 
 and equitable distribution which will give to each 
 enough. But when these conditions are assured, 
 they cease to be greedy of food. And so in society 
 as at present constituted : men are greedy of wealth 
 because the conditions of distribution are so unjust 
 that instead of each being sure of enough, many 
 are certain to be condemned to want. It is 'the 
 Devil catch the hindmost' of present social adjust- 
 ment that causes the race and scramble for wealth, 
 in which all considerations of justice, mercy, relig- 
 ion, and sentiment are trampled under foot ; in 
 which men forget their own souls, and struggle to 
 the very \%v^q of the grave for what they cannot 
 take beyond. But an equitable distribution of 
 wealth, that would exempt all from the fear of 
 want, would destroy the greed of wealth, just as 
 in polite society the greed of food has been de- 
 stroyed 
 
 " But it may be said, to banish want and the fear 
 of want Avould be to destroy the stimulus to exer- 
 tion ; men would become simply idlers, and such a 
 happy state of general comfort and content would 
 be the death of progress. This is the old slave- 
 holders' argument — that men can only be driven 
 to labor with the lash. Nothing is more untrue. 
 
 12
 
 266 THE NEW- REPUBLIC. 
 
 Want might be banished, but desire would remain. 
 Man is the unsatisfied animal. He has but begun 
 to explore, and the universe lies before him. Each 
 step that he takes opens new vistas and kindles 
 new desires. He is the constructive animal ; he 
 builds, he improves, he invents, and puts together; 
 and the greater the thing he does, the greater the 
 thing he wants to do. He is more than an animal. 
 Whatever be the intelligence that breathes through 
 nature, it is in that likeness that man is made. 
 The steamship driven by her throbbing engines 
 through the seas is in kind, though not in degree, 
 as much a creation as the whale that swims beneath. 
 The telescope and the microscope — what are they 
 but added eyes which man has made for himself ? 
 The soft webs and fair colors in which our women 
 array themselves — do they not answer to the plum- 
 age that nature gives the bird? Man must be 
 doing something, or fancy that he is doing some- 
 thing ; for in him throbs creative impulse ; the 
 mere basker in the sunshine is not a natural but an 
 abnormal man." — (pp. 408-419.) 
 
 We could not forbear this long quotation from 
 Mr. George's book. It is so applicable to our 
 case, and so vivid in description of the present 
 and prospective condition of man ! The objection 
 that to banish want and the fear of want would 
 destroy the stimulus for exertion is farther an- 
 swered by stating the fact that many of the most 
 brilliant and active minds have been of those who 
 were placed beyond want. In fact, the freer from 
 this dread incubus, the stronger is the impulse
 
 CORPORATIONS. 267 
 
 to higher and nobler modes of life. The present 
 disparity of social conditions — the struggle with 
 poverty on the one hand and the inordinate and 
 unjust accumulation of wealth on the other — tends 
 to destroy those higher aspirations that better 
 conditions would prompt. Avarice is the inspir- 
 ing genius; it corrupts the social fountain; it 
 turns the channel of thought and feeling from 
 the higher impulses that are slumbering in the 
 soul. 
 
 In our government, corporations are the means 
 by which these conditions of extreme wealth and 
 extreme poverty exist — conditions fatal to the 
 prosperity and hapjiiness of the people. The fear 
 of want that characterizes the " uneasy class " — 
 those occupying a middle ground but with a 
 downward tendency — disqualifies them for better 
 impulses and higher aspirations. 
 
 Corporations for individual aggrandizement 
 must give way to cooperative enterprises ; and 
 measures for the public good must be carried on 
 for the equal benefit of all. Justice is thus made 
 possible, and equality established — conditions ab- 
 solutely essential to a true republic.
 
 268 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 QUALIFICATIOX FOR CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 ' A weapon that comes down so still 
 
 As snow-flakes fall upon the sod, 
 But executes a freeman's will, 
 
 As lightning does the will of God ; 
 And from its force nor doors nor locks 
 
 Can shield you : 'tis the ballot-box." 
 
 Rights enjoyed imply duties to be performed. 
 Such are the demands of life. The bahince of 
 privilege and responsibility, of service and re- 
 ward, is the constant requirement of justice. 
 
 The eventful march of human progress carries 
 along with it the service to be rendered as well 
 us the privileges to be enjoyed ; the one is as 
 essential as the other is valuable. 
 
 Among the most important duties the citizens 
 of a republic are required to perform are : 
 
 1. Acquiring the necessary qualification. A 
 clear conception of the principles upon which a 
 free government is founded, the relations its citi- 
 zens hold to it and to each other, are the first 
 considerations. 
 
 Experience as well as reason demonstrates the 
 fact that due qualification for any work is a 
 necessity ; but in matters of government this
 
 QUAHFICATIOX FOR CITIZENSHIP. 269 
 
 seems to be overlooked. Reliance upon authority 
 and blind confidence in those who are in the ex- 
 ercise of it, intensified by political bias and party 
 zeal, without the " eternal vigilance " so ear- 
 nestly recommended by that great apostle of 
 human liberty, Thomas Jefferson, are fatal de- 
 fects in the qualification for citizenship. Taking 
 advantage of these, designing and ambitious men, 
 selected not for their qualification but for their 
 availability, are thrust upon the people — not 
 chosen by them — to carry out the schemes for 
 securing wealth and dominion. It is clearly the 
 duty of citizens to protect themselves from such 
 imposition ; therefore, such a system of educa- 
 tion as will develop a knowledge of the principles 
 of a true republic is the pressing and imperative 
 requirement. 
 
 Whatever the character of the government 
 may be, the governed must abide by it ; and 
 the question here is, What shall be the character 
 of the governed? For in a republic they ai'e the 
 governors. This is so evident that it requires 
 nothing but the bare statement to brino^ it home 
 to every intelligent mind. Are they self-reliant, 
 and sufficiently independent of political tricksters ; 
 of the influence of party " fealty "; of the tyranny 
 of capital ; free from the debasing influences of 
 vice ? It is the aim and plan of the politicians
 
 270 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 and their masters to mystify, to distract and 
 weaken, to demoralize, to create distrust and 
 destroy confidence. The ignorant man is the 
 weak man. He is the most easily led to believe 
 he is wise, and therefore the most easily hood- 
 winked. His prejudices are aroused ; he im- 
 agines them to be sound principles ; party spirit is 
 awakened forthwith ; in his estimation he be- 
 comes a patriot. He mistakes sophistry for 
 reason, and vehement declamation for profound 
 wisdom. He is alike the sport and the victim of 
 political jugglery. No one is capable of being 
 deceived, but there stands ready a deceiver ; no 
 one in a condition to be robbed, but there stands 
 ready a robber. 
 
 Jefferson's test of the qualification for office is 
 equally applicable to the citizen : " Is he capable? 
 Is he honest ? " The science of political economy 
 should be regularly and thoroughly taught; not 
 the theories found in the writings of the subjects 
 of kings, and servilely imitated by writers who 
 profess to live under a republican government ; 
 into whose heads the idea of the true source of 
 power never enters; who take for granted the 
 complicated and mystified theories of English 
 finance, the oppressive and wicked system of land 
 tenures, and thus establishing and firmly rooting 
 the idea of the justice of land monopoly, a dual
 
 QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 271 
 
 legislative system to serve the interests of the 
 "upper" class, and a judiciary system relegat- 
 ing the administration of justice to a class of 
 special experts, thus creating not only a vast 
 source of income, but the greater evil of the ex- 
 ercise of political power — evils f asrtened upon the 
 people by foreign political economists and jurists. 
 
 The structure of republican govei-nment is es- 
 sentially different from that of monarchical ; as 
 different as the source of power is different, 
 which requires as much difference in principle 
 as there is in source of power ; and an attempt to 
 teach republicanism on monarchical principles is 
 as futile as the attempt to teach morals by the 
 code of the highwayman. 
 
 There can be no proposition plainer than to be 
 able to do anything successfully there must be a 
 qualification for the work. The true principles 
 of a republican government have never yet come 
 to the public mind, much less been systematically 
 taught. Every citizen should master them — must 
 master them ; not the mass of I'ubbish found in 
 the musty tomes of English jurisprudence and 
 political economy, but the principles of justice in 
 the recognition of the equality of natural rights 
 and their benefits to be enjoyed by all; the just 
 and equal distribution of wealth by which each 
 producer may hold and enjoy his own ; the meth-
 
 272 THE NEW RErUBLIC. 
 
 ods of building, equipping, and operating lines 
 of travel, transportation, and intelligence upon a 
 system of actual cost ; a method for the adminis- 
 tration of justice by ready and simple means, 
 and by which emancipation from the control of 
 lawyers and judges, who now operate by the 
 complicated intricacies of theories that have been 
 accumulating for ages. 
 
 The elements necessary to be understood are 
 not complicated and massive beyond the compre- 
 hension of ordinary capacity when developed ; 
 otherwise, there is no possibility of self-govern- 
 ment: in which case, here ends the whole matter. 
 
 The truth is, we are and have been under the 
 tuition of English political economists and jurists, 
 who have fastened their systems upon us, and, 
 as like causes produce like effects, our political 
 and industrial condition resembles that of its 
 prototype as nearly as modifying influences will 
 allow. 
 
 2. An appreciation of the natural rights upon 
 which a true republic is founded. 
 
 Experience and observation show the indiffer- 
 ence of the people under the present system of 
 government to an appreciation of the priceless 
 value of the natural rights endowed upon them 
 by their Creator. 
 
 After a hundred years of failure to secure their
 
 QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZEXSHIP. 273 
 
 just exercise, is it any wonder that the people are 
 discouraged, demoralized ? Under the false and 
 pernicious system of competitive industry, where 
 every man's hand is against his neighbor's, where 
 want and poverty, and the suffering and disgrace 
 attending them, have been so long in operation, is 
 it any wonder that greed and avarice have be- 
 come the ruling forces of society ? The appreci- 
 ation of justice and the idea of its rule in the 
 affairs of life are not looked for in this age of 
 greed and selfishness. Justice is the equilibrium 
 of values, and its blessings are realized just in 
 proportion to the general intelligence and virtue 
 of the people ; and a government is good just in 
 proportion to the degree of justice exercised in it. 
 Selfishness is the great antagonist of justice, and 
 governments are the instrumentalities for the ex- 
 ercise of the one, in despotism and slavery by the 
 ignorance and moral obliquity of the governed, 
 or in liberty, equality, and happiness by the in- 
 telligence and virtue of the governed. 
 
 Truth is the torch that lights to the domain of 
 justice ; error always leads astray into the des- 
 potism of selfishness. Truth is the child of 
 knowledge ; error, that of ignorance. " He whom 
 the truth makes free is free indeed," and in the en- 
 joyment of its innumerable blessings ; but he who 
 flounders in the sea of error is carried on its 
 12*
 
 274 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 darksome waves into the tlomaln of poverty, de- 
 gradation, misery, and ruin. 
 
 Intelligence comes to us only by hard and per- 
 sistent effort, and well it is that it does, or we 
 would sink into intellectual and moral inanition. 
 The effort required to develop the intellectual 
 and moral powers yields a double blessing ; with 
 the developement by acquisition comes the ca- 
 pacity for gratification that activity affords. 
 
 The legitimate pursuit of all thought is truth ; 
 the inevitable result of ignorance is error. 
 Truth builds up and preserves, and carries us 
 upward and onward to illimitable heights of 
 grandeur and glory ; error arrests and turns us 
 backward into barrenness and gloom : the one 
 gives light and joy, the other darkness and mis- 
 ery. Truth comes as the fruit of effort and in- 
 dustry ; error of ignorance and misguided zeal : 
 the one is the spirit of right, the other the ghost 
 of wrong. The inseparable companion of truth 
 is love ; that of error is passion. In a political 
 sense, error is terrible to contemplate. Its off- 
 spring are hate, intolerance, pride, egotism, big- 
 otry, superstition, greed, oppression. It gave the 
 poison to Socrates ; it nailed the gentle Nazarene 
 upon the cross; it imprisoned Copernicus; it 
 manacled the hands of Galileo, and laid the in- 
 junction of silence upon his lips for uttering a
 
 QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 275 
 
 great and Immortal truth ; it murdered the inno- 
 cent victims of alleged witchcraft ; it decapi- 
 tated Charles I. of England, and then tore open 
 the grave of his destroyer, Cromwell, snatched 
 his body from it, hung it upon a gibbet, and then 
 quartered it. It has immolated the sons and 
 daughters of liberty upon its altar, and covered 
 the seat of justice with the robes of iniquity. It 
 antagonizes fi-eedom and destroys human happi- 
 ness. It is strongly intrenched in the citadel of 
 human affection, and is the main reliance of 
 tyrants. Liberty cannot exist where error reigns. 
 With keen moral perceptions and appreciation 
 of justice, with natural rights weighed and scaled 
 up to their full value, the fruits of ignorance and 
 error — poverty, slavery, depravity, crime, and 
 misery — would not, could not, exist. We now 
 suffer and tolerate these evils : ought not this to 
 arouse us to the fact that moral appreciation is 
 not up to the point requisite for individual free- 
 dom and happiness, the true aim of popular 
 government ? Ignorance and vice are insepara- 
 ble in the administration of government. Igno- 
 rance converts liberty into license, and vice 
 panders to the lowest passions. Ignorance tol- 
 erates wrong because it cannot comprehend right, 
 vice supports it because it ministers to sensuality. 
 " We must educate ! We must educate ! Or
 
 276 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 else we perish ! " said an American writer years 
 ago. The truth of this is so apparent that it 
 needs no statement. The rapid creation of 
 wealth, without the corresponding moral culture, 
 gives impetus and force to the rule of passion ; 
 the control of this increased wealth by a few, 
 without due qualification in the many, must be 
 disastrous to the rule of justice and the reign of 
 liberty. 
 
 Intelligence and virtue are inseparable. We 
 do not appreciate our rights because we do not 
 understand them. Who is able to measure the 
 value, the resources, or compass the limits of 
 power that slumber in the human soul? "The 
 human mind," says a living writer, " is the re- 
 pository of infinite possibilities." Accustomed 
 to toil and to the cruel reign of greed and unhal- 
 lowed ambition, these having never been duly 
 developed, cannot be duly appreciated. 
 
 The energy of the toiler has been expended in 
 the struggle with poverty, and the incessant 
 haunting of the fear of want, and the forebodings 
 of misery that follow in its train have prevented 
 the higher and nobler attributes of the soul from 
 being called out. 
 
 Environments create conditions. Because we 
 have so often seen the suffering and torture of 
 anxiety proceeding from poverty, and know not
 
 QUALIFICATION FOR CITIZENSHIP. 277 
 
 how soon we may become its victims, we have 
 ixrown cautious and selfish. Everthinfj that 
 touches our pecuniary interests I'ender us ex- 
 tremely solicitous. AVe give an intellectual 
 assent to the statements of history and the deduc- 
 tions of science, for the simple reason that they 
 do not perceptibly affect our pockets. 
 
 So far as they are concerned, the nebula hy- 
 pothesis of La Place may be true or not, and the 
 results of the ever-busy woriiers in elaborating 
 and formulating scientific data are alike indiffer- 
 ent to us, because we see no direct relation be- 
 tween them and our purses. So we do not 
 perceive the intimate relations between and the 
 direct dependence on all that makes life dear and 
 valuable, a just and true government, and the 
 welfare and happiness of the people. 
 
 We are ready enough to resist the evils that 
 reach our doors, without an appreciation or even 
 a laudable effort to grasp and comprehend the 
 cause. We overlook the gigantic wrong and 
 try to grapple with its effects. Unless we clearly 
 perceive the underlying cause of the evils from 
 which we suffer, we will never make an effort to 
 remove it. That cause lies in an unjustly con- 
 stituted government, wherein usurped rights, 
 not natural rights, are the foundation. The abil- 
 ity to comprehend that wrong basis and fully
 
 278 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 appreciate the right one are indespen&able quali- 
 fications in the citizens of a republic. Justice 
 is its constructive principle, liberty its temple, 
 equality its condition, and the free exercise of 
 all the natural rights its aim and consummation. 
 The power to conceive and appreciate the prin- 
 ciples and forces that constitute a I'epublic are 
 absolutely necessary to its existence. This must 
 be acquired. The immensity of its importance 
 cannot be expressed or even estimated. The ap- 
 plication of this power to the purposes of gov- 
 ernment is the highest and most important duty 
 of man. A well-constituted government is the 
 essential condition for the most advanced civili- 
 zation, and upon which it must depend. What 
 duty, then, so imperative ? What benefit so great ? 
 What result so grand? Would the curse of in- 
 temperance, with its horrible train of crime, deg- 
 radation, moral, social, domestic, pliysical, and 
 financial ruin, be tolerated when virtue is appre- 
 ciated ? AYould we behold the tears and hear 
 the cries of women and children in their suffer- 
 ings from liunger and cold, with indifference, 
 if the sense of justice glowed in our hearts? 
 Would corporate power, inspired by greed and 
 impelled by cupidity, place its iron heel on tlie 
 neck of labor, to rob and enslave it without a 
 protest, if fraternal love beamed in our souls ?
 
 QUALIFICATIOX FOR CITIZEXSHIP. 279 
 
 Would the tyrant robber-chiefs ti'ample upon the 
 people's rights, while we look on in slavish fear, 
 if there was a spark of the love of liberty glow- 
 ing in our breasts ? Would courts be bribed and 
 lobyists flourish, if corruption was not tolerated ? 
 Would land robbery, money swindling, railroad 
 extortion, and gambling speculation be the order 
 and the rule in a government of the people, for 
 the people, by the people, if they did their duty 
 as citizens ? 
 
 We answ^er. No ! There is no question in 
 this matter. We cannot tolerate wrong when 
 Ave realize it and know the remedy. We do tol- 
 erate it. Our duty as citizens is plain. AVe 
 must not expect reward without earning it. The 
 blessings of liberty come only to those who 
 achieve liberty.
 
 280 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 " A new and fair division of the goods and rights of this 
 world sliould be the main object of those who conduct human 
 affairs." — De Tocqueville. 
 
 " Since writers have so confounded society with 
 government as to leave little or no distinction be- 
 tween them, whereas, they are not only different, 
 but have different origins : society is produced by 
 our wants, and government by our %oickedness ; the 
 former promotes our happiness ^os^■<^ye/y by uniting 
 our affections , the latter nefjatively by restraining 
 our vices. The one encoui'ages intercourse, the 
 other creates distinctions. 
 
 •' Society in every state is a blessing; but govern- 
 ment, even in its best estate, is but a necessary %\'A : 
 in its worst, an intolerable one; for when we suffer, 
 or are exposed to the same miseries by a govern- 
 ment which we might expect in a country without 
 a government, our calamity is heightened by re- 
 flecting that we furnish the means hy which we 
 suffer. "^ 
 
 " Government, like dress, is the badge of lost inno- 
 cence ; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of 
 the bowers of Paradise. For, were his impulses of 
 conscience clear, uniform, and irresistibly obeyed, 
 man would need no other law-giver; but that not be- 
 ing the case, he finds it necessary to render up a part 
 
 * In this allusion to the British government, how striking 
 the analogy between it and our own !
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 281 
 
 of his property to fuvuish means for the protection 
 of tlie rest ; and this he is induced to do by the same 
 prudence which in every other case advises him out 
 of two evils to choose the least ; wherefore, secur- 
 ity being the true design and end of government, 
 it unanswerably follows that whatever/b?7w thereof 
 appears most likely to insui-e it to us with the least 
 expense and greatest benefit is preferable to all 
 others. In order to gain a clear and just idea of 
 the design and end of government, let us suppose a 
 small number of persons settled in some sequestered 
 part of the earth unconnected with the rest ; they 
 will represent the first j^eopling of any country or 
 of the world. In this state of natural liberty soci- 
 ety will be their first thought, a thousand motives 
 will excite them thereto ; the strength of one man 
 is so unequal to his wants, and his mind so unfitted 
 for perpetual solitude, that he is soon obliged to 
 seek assistance and relief of another, who in his 
 turn requires the same. Four or five united would 
 be able to raise a tolerable dwelling in the midst of 
 a wilderness ; but one man might labor out the com- 
 mon period of life without accomplishing anything: 
 when he had felled his timber he could not remove 
 it, nor erect it after It was removed ; hunger in the 
 mean time would urge him from his work, and every 
 different want would call him a different way. 
 Disease — nay, even misfortune — would be death, for 
 though neither might be mortal, yet either would 
 disable him from living, and reduce him to a state 
 in which he might rather be said to perish than 
 to die. 
 
 " Thus necessity, like a gravitating power, would 
 soon form our newly arrived emigrants into society ; 
 the reciprocal blessings of which would supersede 
 and render the obligations of law and government
 
 282 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 unnecessary, while they remained perfectly just to 
 each other ; but as nothing but heaven is impreg- 
 nable to vice, it will unavoidably happen that in 
 proportion as they surmount the first difficulties of 
 emigration which bind them together in a com- 
 mon cause, they will begin to relax in their duty 
 and attachment, and this remissness will point out 
 the necessity of establishing some form of govern- 
 ment to supply defect of moral virtue. 
 
 " Some convenient tree will afford them a state 
 house, under the branches of which the whole col- 
 ony may assemble to deliberate on public matters. 
 It is more than probable that their first laws will 
 have the title only of Regulations, and be enforced 
 by no other penalty than public disesteem. In this 
 first parliament every man, by natural right, will 
 have a seat. 
 
 " But as the colony increases, public concerns will 
 increase likewise, and the distance at which the 
 members may be separated will render it too incon- 
 venient for all of them to meet on every occasion as 
 at first, when their nuiaibor was small, their habita- 
 tions near, and public concerns few and trifling. 
 
 "This will point out the convenience of their con- 
 senting to leave the legislative part to be managed 
 by a select number chosen from the whole body, 
 who are supposed to have the same concerns at 
 stake which those have who appoint them, and who 
 will act in the same manner as the whole body 
 would were they present. If the colony continue 
 increasing, it will become necessary to augment the 
 number of representatives; and that the interest of 
 every part of the colony may be attended to, it will 
 be found best to divide the whole into convenient 
 parts, each part sending its proper number ; and that 
 the elected might never form to themselves an inter-
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 283 
 
 est seperate from the electors, prudence will point 
 out the propriety of having elections often ; because 
 as the elected might by that means return and mix 
 again with the general body of the electors, in a few 
 months their fidelity to the pnblic will be secured 
 by the prudent reiiection of not making a rod for 
 themselves. And as this frequent interchange will 
 establish a common interest with every part of the 
 community, they will mutually and naturally sup- 
 port each other, and on this depends the strength of 
 government, and the happiness of the governed. 
 
 " Here, then, is the origin and rise of government, 
 namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability 
 of moral virtue to govern the world ; here, too, is 
 the design and end of government, viz., freedom and 
 security. And however our eyes may be dazzled 
 with the show or our ears deceived by sound, how- 
 ever i^rejudice may warp our wills or interest dark- 
 en our understanding, the simple virtue of nature 
 and reason will say it is right. 
 
 " I draw my idea of government from a principle 
 in nature which no art can overturn ; viz., that the 
 more simiDle anything is, the less liable it is to be 
 disordered, and the more easily repaired when dis- 
 ordered.'' — Paine's Rights of Man. 
 
 The aim and intent of a republic is the regula- 
 tion and protection of the people in the free and 
 full exercise of their natural and inalienable 
 rights. The necessity of government arises from 
 the clashing of selfish interests; the •power of 
 government is commensurate with the needs and 
 wants of man ; and the character of government 
 will correspond with the cluiracter of the people
 
 284 THE JsEW KEPUBLIC. 
 
 composing It. The foundation of republican 
 government is the natural rights of man and his 
 common interests. The 'principles of a republi- 
 can government consist in a free and voluntary 
 compact by which the units form an aggregate, 
 each maintaining his personal sovereignty ; with 
 a mutual agreement to abide by and conform to 
 certain prescriptions for mutual benefit and safe- 
 ty ; with constitutional provisions for organi- 
 zation, in which are specified the sovereign 
 functions of government and provisions for ex- 
 ercising them ; provisions for electing some of 
 their own number, and delegating power to act 
 within certain prescribed limits; being a volun- 
 tary national association, recognizing their nat- 
 ural rights and organizing for the sole purpose 
 of securing their exercise and enjoyment. 
 
 Such government retains the power in the 
 people ; it serves the highest purposes of gov- 
 ernment, and lays a foundation lasting as long as 
 the necessity for government exists. 
 
 It is the most advanced plan of government, 
 founded on the recognition of the individual 
 rights of property 
 
 How far these principles are to be carried out 
 depends on the people composing it. * 
 
 Its embodiment of principles and structure are 
 prescribed and formulated in a constitution. This
 
 NATUKE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 285 
 
 is not tlie work of the government, but of the 
 people ; it is the formation of the government. 
 
 It defines and formulates the natural rights of 
 the citizens. 
 
 It creates and establishes legislative and exec- 
 utive powers, prescribes a method of electing 
 representatives, and determines their term of 
 service and compensation therefor. 
 
 It defines the sovereign functions of govern- 
 ment, and provides measures for their perform- 
 ance. 
 
 It provides for self-defense and relations with 
 other governments ; for revenue and public en- 
 terprises. 
 
 It secures to all its citizens equal rights, privi- 
 leges, and opportunities. 
 
 It ])rovides for schools of necessary kinds and 
 their support, and due quajification for citizen- 
 ship. 
 
 It creates modes for the administration of jus- 
 tice and the disposition and treatment of criminals ; 
 for the preservation of health, and protection from 
 the allurements of debasing; and dcf^radino; vices. 
 
 It secures freedom of opinion on all subjects, 
 and freedom of speech and assemblage. 
 
 All its institutions arc public corporations: its 
 postal system, its telegraph and other lines of 
 communication, its transportation and travel, its
 
 286 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 education and bureaus for information, are estab- 
 lished and conducted by government. Individual 
 rights, privileges, and opportunities are equal, and 
 all duties equally required and all burdens equal- 
 ly borne in proportion to their ability. Compen- 
 sation for public service should be no inducement 
 for being sought. For when extraordinaiy power 
 and extraordinary pay are conferred upon any 
 individual in government, he becomes the center 
 around which every kind of corruption generates 
 and forms. Give any man a very large official 
 salary, and add thereto the power of disposing of 
 places at the expense of the government, and of- 
 fices of public service, and the liberties of the 
 people are no longer secure. When once such a 
 vicious system is established, it becomes the 
 guard and protection of inferior abuses. Cor- 
 ruption, once tolerated, extends to all the depart- 
 ments of the government and becomes the rule. 
 
 It is the interest of each to defend the 
 others, and thus all keep pure, for all have a 
 mutual interest. Reformation never comes from 
 those in 'power. 
 
 If we would compare the Federal Constitutioti 
 with one framed as here indicated, we would at 
 once discover its inadaptability to the require- 
 ments of a true republic. 
 
 In its legislative dei^artment, it has a branch
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 287 
 
 devoted to the interests o£ the higher class. By 
 its criminal action, untold millions of dollars have 
 been drawn from labor and given to idleness ; 
 by it a debt has been created and fastened upon 
 the people, to be borne by them alone, while that 
 class best able to bear it are exonerated, and 
 this debt is sought to be perpetual. Through 
 the influence of its leading members, that debt 
 has been doubled in value by legislative enact- 
 ment, and witliout any value in retui'n to the 
 people. 
 
 Had it not been for the interference of the 
 Senate, the money which was designed for the 
 expenditure of the government during the civil 
 war, and which would have been at par with 
 gold, would have remained in sufficient volume 
 in circulation for all the purposes of industry 
 and commerce. 
 
 The difference between such a condition and 
 that which now exists is beyond all calculation. 
 Notwithstanding the immense loss of life and de- 
 struction of property occasioned by the war, the 
 volume left in circulation at its close ffave such 
 an impulse to industrial pursuits as were never 
 before known in the history of our nation. 
 
 Wealth flowed in upon the people as if by 
 magic, debts were paid, and comforts and even 
 elegances were begun to be enjoyed. Through
 
 288 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 the influence of the Senate, contraction began, 
 and the tide was turned. As a result, the peo- 
 ple are robbed and being impoverished, class dis- 
 tinctions are built up, and corporate rule holds 
 absolute sway. 
 
 The Senate has neither sympathy nor respect 
 for the people ; it is not elected by them, and feels 
 under no obligations to them. This is justly in- 
 ferred from the history of their action for the 
 last twenty years. 
 
 Thus equality is destroyed, liberty trampled 
 under foot, justice ignored, and the dear, and 
 long-cherished hopes and aspirations of the toil- 
 ing millions overthrown. 
 
 The executive department provided in the 
 Federal Constitution is no less inimical to the lib- 
 erties and happiness of the people. The vast 
 powers conferred upon the chief executive 
 enables him to turn this government into a des- 
 potism without changing the Constitution or 
 abandoning popular elections. He is the head 
 and leader of the dominant political party, and 
 the power and patronage vested in him enables 
 him to exercise a power that few kings possess. 
 
 "Section II. (Art. 2.) The President shall be 
 the commander-in-chief of the array and navy of 
 the United States, and of the militia of the several 
 States when called into actual service of the United
 
 NATURE AND USE8 OF GOVERNMENT. 289 
 
 States. He may require, in writing, the opinion of 
 the principal officers in each of the executive de- 
 partments upon any subject relating to the duties 
 of their respective offices, and he shall have power 
 to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against 
 the United States except in cases of impeachment. 
 
 " 2. He shall have power, by and with the con- 
 sent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two- 
 thirds of the Senate present concur ; and he shall 
 nominate, and by and with the consent of the Sen- 
 ate shall appoint, embassadors, other public minis- 
 ters and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and 
 all other officers of the United States whose ap- 
 pointments are not herein otherwise provided for, 
 and which shall be established by law ; but the 
 Congress may by law vest the appointment of such 
 inferior officers as they think proper in the Presi- 
 dent alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of 
 departments. 
 
 " 3. The President shall have power to fill up all 
 vacancies that may happen during the recess of the 
 Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire 
 at the end of their next session. 
 
 " Sec. in. He shall from time to time give 
 to Congress information of the state of the Union, 
 and recommend for their consideration such 
 measures as he shall judge necessary and ex- 
 pedient ; he may on extraordinary occasions con- 
 vene both Houses or either of them, and in case 
 of disagreement between them with resjsect to 
 the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them 
 to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall re- 
 ceive embassadors and other public ministers ; he 
 shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, 
 and shall commission all the officers of the United 
 States." — United States Constitution. 
 
 13
 
 290 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 Section VII., 2 (Article I.), clothes the Presi- 
 dent with a negative jiower over the action of 
 the Congress, of any majority less than two- 
 thirds. 
 
 These powers vested in the President are 
 kingly prerogatives and derived from English 
 law, modified by the pressure of public senti- 
 ment at the time of the framing of the Federal 
 Constitution and by the necessity to secure its 
 ratification. 
 
 The Englisli monarch commands his armies, 
 creates his courts, advises his Parliament, ap- 
 points his embassadors, makes treaties, and par- 
 dons state criminals. 
 
 What a wonderful similarity ! The one, the 
 head and representative of nfree government and 
 the other of a monarchy ! How obvious it Is 
 that this transformation of a popular government 
 into a despotism of the vilest and most degrad- 
 ing kind — not into a monarchy, where some 
 respect is due to the subjects, but of an oli- 
 garchy, whose sole and avowed purpose is domin- 
 ion of all the wealth resources of the land. 
 
 The corrupting influence and tyranny of the 
 courts transferred from the English monarchy 
 with no material change of character are by this 
 Constitution foisted ujoon our government, a de- 
 partment unnecessary in a government of equal-
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 291 
 
 ity, intelligence, and justice. Could an estimate 
 be made that would exhibit at one view the evils 
 of our judiciary system, it would be appalling. 
 The tyranny of the courts, the defeat of justice, 
 the immunity of the wealthy, the vexatious de- 
 lays, and enormous expense are burdens too 
 heavy for a free people to bear. 
 
 The Federal Constitution allows members of 
 Congress to fix their own compensation, while 
 the people have to supply the treasury from 
 which they draw their salaries. 
 
 This is contrary to all business principles ; it 
 should be determined by the people and incorpor- 
 ated in their Constitution. 
 
 The United States Constitution authorizes the 
 disposition of the " territory and other property 
 of the United States."— (Art. IV., Sec. III.) 
 
 This power to dispose of the public domain 
 has been and is employed to build up giant 
 monopolies, which override the liberties of the 
 people and destroy their government. The idea 
 that the public domain belongs to the govern- 
 ment and not to the people is derived from the 
 prevailing opinion that the sovereign is sole pro- 
 prietor of the nation, and that the government is 
 the sovereign. The people have been robbed of 
 an area of one-third of the arable land of the 
 country : tiie disastrous effects will be realized in
 
 292 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 years to come. It lias laid the foundation for 
 evils that may culminate in blood. Such reck- 
 less disregard for justice and the public welfare 
 is unparalleled in the history of modern govern- 
 ments. The powers conferred by land monopoly 
 have been discussed, and their evils in other 
 countries should have served as a warning to our 
 own ; but blind to every other consideration, cor- 
 porate power has sought every means for its 
 advancement, and the very foundation of all 
 prosperity has been removed by the government 
 transfer of the land of the people to the control 
 of corporations. 
 
 " It was and is the evident duty of the govern- 
 ment," says R. T. Bland, " to prevent any mo- 
 nopoly of the soil, and to hold the public lands 
 to equal and free occupancy by the people for 
 actual settlement. To give or to sell the lands 
 in large bodies to Individuals or corporations for 
 speculative purposes is a manifest usurpation 
 and injustice. It is a violation of the spirit of 
 free government, and incompatible with the con- 
 tinued existence of a republic. It is a direct step 
 toward aristocracy and despotism." 
 
 The results of vested power, and its exercise 
 beyond the control of the people, are perfectly in 
 accordance with the conclusions reached by logi- 
 cal deductions. The temptations it affords to
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 293 
 
 ambitious and unscrupulous men are too great ; 
 and the facilities for their gratification are em- 
 ployed for the overthrow of free government. 
 The structure of our government offers opportu- 
 nities for usurpation and robbery ; as one politi- 
 cian was candid enough to say, '' If the people 
 put saddles on their backs and spurs on our heels, 
 they might expect we would ride." The conse- 
 quence is, the worst men came to the surface ; and 
 a Franklin or a Jefferson could no more be elected 
 to an office than a Christian priest could officiate at 
 a Mussulman's altar. The idea of conferring 
 titles of nobility upon citizens would excite honest 
 indignation, but they are virtually conferred by 
 corporate charters vipon American citizens who 
 excel English aristocracy in everything but vir- 
 tue. These are the facts that confront us to-day ; 
 these are the logical sequences of vested pow^ers 
 beyond the people's control, attracting the selfish, 
 the unscrupulous and ambitious, and virtually 
 Inviting them to take the reins of government 
 In their own hands ; and they have accepted 
 the Invitation ; they have seized the opportunity 
 offered them. What is the remedy? Recon- 
 struction. EstahUsh a government on the prin- 
 ciples of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 It Is worthy of remark how tenaciously the 
 people hold to a mere name, and refuse to accept
 
 294 THE NEW KEPUBLIC. 
 
 the facts made palpable by the evidence of their 
 senses, and cling to a delusion because it is a 
 pleasing one, and try to make themselves believe 
 the delusion is a reality. 
 
 The late Judge Black has given his testimony 
 in regard to the political condition of our country, 
 in the following unmistakable language : 
 
 " The actual consequences resulting to the coun- 
 try from the measures of the monopolists have not, 
 I think, been truly represented or properly consid- 
 ered. For many years past, all legislation has been 
 partial to capitalists, and correspondingly injurious 
 to the rights of land and labor. To what pernicious 
 extent this system has been carried I need not say, 
 for it is seen and known of all men. It cannot and 
 will not come to good. Artificial regulations of 
 that character never have, since the beginning of 
 the world, had any effect but a bad one on the gen- 
 eral condition of society that tried them. But the 
 monopolists insist that they have changed the nature 
 of things and enriched the masses of the people by 
 the simple process of filching from them the fruits 
 of their toil. They loudly cry out that the whole 
 country is in a state of boundless prosperity. They 
 get this brag inserted in political platforms when- 
 ever they can, and thunder it from every stump on 
 which they are permitted to speak. But it is false. 
 They themselves are, indeed, superabundantly rich ; 
 and invested, as they are, with the privilege of 
 plundering their fellow-citizens, why should they 
 not be rich? But for every millionaire they have 
 made a thousand paupers. The relations between 
 workmen and employers have never been so unsat-
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 295 
 
 isfactory as now. Laborers are complaining every- 
 where of inadequate wages ; and the complaint is 
 true without doubt. The law ought to secure them 
 a living rate of compensation ; but capital has got 
 labor by the throat, and will not suffer anything 
 done for its relief. 
 
 "Agriculture is scarcely better off. The farmer 
 who tills his own acres can make the barest living. 
 The carrying trade of the world has passed from us 
 into the hands of our great rival, simply because 
 our jDreposterous legislation will not permit us to 
 buy ships abroad, or build them at home without 
 paying a tax on the material, which enhance their 
 cost, and by reason of this — that is to say, carry it, 
 or get it carried by the nearest way — we have lost 
 what was or should be now the richest portion of 
 our foreign commerce. Is all this loss and suffering 
 of the industrious classes to be ignored? 
 
 " If we estimate the prosperity of a country only 
 by the overgrown fortunes of individuals especially 
 favored by law, then Ireland is prosj^ei'ous as well 
 as America ; for there as here the legal machinery 
 is in perfect order, which makes the rich richer, 
 while it grinds the poor down into deej)er poverty ; 
 and thei-e as here the lines of Goldsmith are ever 
 true and ever wise : 
 
 " ' Hard fares the state, to hastening ills a prey, 
 "Where wealth accumulates and men decay.' " 
 
 In formulating and framing a government, we 
 must adopt the plan of nature. The entire do- 
 main of natural phenomena is the necessary 
 result of tiie operation of natural law ; whether 
 it be in the domain of matter or mind, the law is
 
 296 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 as absolutely definite and determinate In the 
 realm of mentality as that of matter. But sensu- 
 ous perception has always preceded the deeper 
 processes of the reasoning powers. The apparent 
 always comes before the real, even in the realm 
 of matter. Astrology preceded astronomy. For 
 thousands of years the wox'ld was satisfied with 
 the Idea that the earth was flat, and that the sun, 
 planets, and stars revolved around it. Alchemy 
 was the intuitive vagaries that human genius has 
 since developed Into chemistry, and the dreams of 
 transmutation indulged in by the alchemist are 
 realized in the magical results of modern chem- 
 istry. The forces that now move the machinery 
 of the civilized world, until within a compara- 
 tively recent period of time, were slumbering in 
 the coal-beds, and only waited the power of gen- 
 ius to evoke them. The electric force, that until 
 recently only displayed itself in the lightning's 
 flash and the thunder's roar, now meekly obeys 
 the voice of man and becomes his most valuable 
 servant. 
 
 What is done in the realm of mechanical forces, 
 that have added so much to the power of pro- 
 duction and facility of communication, may soon 
 be 'done in the realm of thought. The mora} 
 forces that move the social world, definite and 
 determinate as they are, will be recognized and
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 297 
 
 applied to the social and political world. As 
 motion is the result of physical force, so emotion 
 is the result of moral force. What gravitation 
 and chemical affinity are to the physical world 
 and justice to the moral world, so is desire to 
 the social world. The laws of motion are so well 
 understood that machinery is contrived and ar- 
 ranged by which almost incalculable results are 
 obtained. The laws of moral and social force 
 must be equally comprehended and applied to 
 obtain results of commensurate value. 
 
 In the affairs of government, the natural laws 
 of mind are ignored. Self-constituted authority 
 and usurpation of power were the first steps to- 
 ward the establishment of government. Edicts 
 and mandates were the first laws. Resistance on 
 the part of the governed was the next step. 
 This resulted in a compromise between the 
 " powers that be " and the subject of these 
 powers. Under such a system of government, 
 in the course of time there accumulated a vast 
 amount of laws and usuages, sanctioned by cus- 
 tom, in the form of edicts, decisions, opinions, 
 speculations, and legislative enactments, classi- 
 fied, systematized, theorized, and formulated ; 
 and elevated into the dignity of a science by the 
 ingenious commentaries of men of acknowledged 
 13*
 
 298 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 ability, and accepted as the authority of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The moral law of social relations is justice ; 
 that of government is force. The first is the 
 law of God ; the second the law of man. The 
 adjustment of man's relations by the former will 
 secure the full capacity of his hap})Iness ; the 
 adjustment by the latter, under the control of 
 prevailing power, brings into existence in civil- 
 ized nations the distinctions of high and low, 
 rich and poor, bond and free. Force takes the 
 place of justice. Immense wealth in few hands 
 is drawn from labor by the power of man-made 
 law. 
 
 There is no more effectual way of establishing 
 slavery of the most abject kind than by reduc- 
 ing the people to poverty. Give to man ever}'^- 
 thlng else he may desire — health, liberty, learning, 
 genius : poverty will make him the humblest 
 and most submissive slave. Give him wealth, 
 and he feels the aspirations and dignity of a man, 
 because wealth enables him to develop, exercise, 
 and enjoy the attributes that characterize him as 
 a moral, intellectual, and social being. 
 
 Impoverishment of thj people is the only 
 mode of subjugation, and ignorance of human 
 rights, however much impracticable knowledge 
 and learned nonsense may prevail, is the means
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 299 
 
 of subjugation. Legislation provides for it, and 
 the " courts of law " secure it. Force and author- 
 ity take the place of reason and justice. Greed 
 and want, avarice and poverty, discontent and 
 submission, are the somewhat paradoxical con- 
 ditions of the people. Three words will express 
 the remedy — justice to all ; and how to ob- 
 tain that justice is the object of our present 
 inquiry. 
 
 With what has been said, the method may be 
 readily Inferred. Injustice inevitably brings 
 misery. The whole intent of republican govern- 
 ment is to secure justice. With it flow all the 
 blessings of society and the benefits of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 HoAv shall we secure it? 
 
 1. Frame such a government as will secure 
 the control of it to the governed. 
 
 2. Provide for a fair and honest election of 
 ofl[icers by a proportional system of representa- 
 tion. 
 
 3. Provide due qualification for citizenship by 
 disregarding the distinction of sex, and securing 
 adequate moral and intellectual cultivation. 
 
 4. Let all power delegated to oflScers be re- 
 turned at stated periods to the people by the 
 expiration of their term of office. 
 
 5. Let the burden of revenues be borne
 
 300 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 equally by all in proportion to tlieir ability to 
 bear it. 
 
 6. Provide for a financial system by which 
 exchanges are made equal, and a just distribu- 
 tion of wealth is secured. 
 
 7. Substitute a system of arbitration for the 
 present " courts of law." In the adjustment 
 of controversies, justice is all that is demanded. 
 In any community where the conduct of men is 
 expected to meet with approval, they certainly 
 would be willing to abide by the decision of such 
 men as they would select. The complications, 
 intricacies, and subtleties of law are beyond the 
 mental scope of the people, and when applied in 
 the adjustment of controvei'sies or causes at issue, 
 by a class of experts who are specially trained 
 in those complications, intricacies, and subtleties, 
 the people are at their mei'cy ; and since this 
 class officiate for the people, and shape and con- 
 strue the laws of which they are sole creators 
 and expounders, and even expounders of the 
 meaning of Constitutions, the dependence of the 
 people on them is that of absolute submission — a 
 condition that every honest man should spurn 
 with contempt and indignation. 
 
 8. A system of national enterprise for travel, 
 transportation, and communication, by which 
 only the cost is paid, or if more, let it be applied 
 as revenue.
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERNMENT. 301 
 
 9. A system of education by which the citi- 
 zens will be qualified for the discharge of all 
 their duties, and thus secure a free government. 
 
 These are the fundamental principles upon 
 which a true republic may be established, the 
 aim and end of which is the regulation and pro- 
 tection of the people in the exercise of their 
 natural rights ; and this exercise is the best and 
 all that government can confer upon a people. 
 It is for them to determine. It is only for them 
 to understand to apply the remedy. It is impos- 
 sible to conceive that men will take up arms and 
 spend their lives and fortunes, not to maintain 
 their rights, but to perpetuate a system that out- 
 rages every jirinciple of justice and destroys their 
 liberty. 
 
 The power to do this is in the people ; but that 
 power must be concentrated. The power is in 
 the knowledge of these immortal truths in the 
 minds of the people and in their will to enforce 
 them. 
 
 "If, while there is yet time," says Henry 
 George, " we turn to justice and obey her, if we 
 trust liberty and follow her, the dangers that now 
 threaten must disappear." The means for such 
 reconstruction are still in our hands ; but intelli- 
 gence, resolution, organization, are the necessary 
 conditions for its successful accomplishment. Let
 
 802 THE NEW REPtTBLIC. 
 
 the ballot, which is the force that now menaces 
 our destruction, be turned to agencies for con- 
 struction. Let wisdom guide and reason rule ; 
 let unity give strength. 
 
 With a government as here Indicated, what a 
 glorious achievement would be accomplished ! 
 
 " With want destroyed ; with greed changed to 
 noble passions ; with the fraternity that is born of 
 equality taking the place of jealousy and fear that 
 array men against each other ; with mental power 
 loosened by conditions that give to the humblest 
 comfort and leisure — and who shall measure the 
 heights to which our civilization may soar? Words 
 fail the thought! It is the golden age of which 
 poets have sung and high-raised seers have told in 
 metaphor. It is the glorious vision which has 
 always haunted man with gleams of fitful splendor." 
 — Henry George. 
 
 Civilization, which has risen and declined in 
 successive periods, may steadily pursue Its up- 
 ward course. It only needs the full and uninter- 
 rupted play of the social forces, and the political 
 appliances for their regulation and protection of 
 their exercise, to reach a point in civilization 
 never yet experienced in the history of the world. 
 There is nothing extravagant or exaggerating in 
 this view. 
 
 When poverty Is removed ; when avarice and 
 greed no longer goad to cruelty and robbery, and 
 the higher faculties assert their prerogative, then
 
 NATURE AND USES OF GOVERXMEXT. 303 
 
 the " sword will be beaten into a plowshare, and 
 the spear into a pruning-hook." 
 
 Is not this worth striving for ? What nobler 
 object could engage the attention of man ? How 
 earnestly and faithfully the patriot fathers strug- 
 gled for this ! How bravely and lavishly they 
 poured out their treasure and their blood ! And 
 shall we, the sons and daughters of such noble 
 sires, ignobly submit to what they so gloriously 
 conquered ? 
 
 " The true republic is not yet here; but her birtli- 
 struggles must soon begin. Already with the hope 
 of her men's thoughts are stirring Not a republic 
 of landlords and peasants, nor a republic of million- 
 aires and tramps ; not a republic in which some are 
 masters and some serve : but a republic of equal cit- 
 izens, where competition becomes co-operation, and 
 the interdependence of all gives true independence 
 to each ; where moral progress goes hand in hand 
 with intellectual progress, and material progress 
 elevates and enfranchises even the poorest and 
 weakest and lowliest." — Henry George.
 
 304 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DirnCULTIES CONSIDERED. 
 
 " Truth cruslied to earth will rise again, 
 The eternal years of God are hers ; ^ 
 While Error writhing in her pain 
 Dies amid her worshipers." 
 
 The presentation of new thoughts, or even of 
 old ones in new arrangement or application, ex- 
 cites opposition and is generally resisted. We 
 cherish our opinions with vigilant care. No dif- 
 ference what they are or how we came by them : 
 should they be assailed, we hasten with laudable 
 zeal to defend them. Were they judiciously se- 
 lected from the great field of thought and formed 
 with special regard to truth and reason? We 
 never knew how or when they were formed. We 
 never questioned their soundness nor suspected 
 their validity. But let a new idea, or a new appli- 
 cation of an old one, be presented for acceptance, 
 and forthwith there is " war in the camp." We 
 approach it with the utmost caution ; we examine 
 it with the utmost care ; we scrutinize it with 
 the keenest adverse criticism ; and then — reject 
 it. This is the most favorable consideration of 
 its treatment. Too often we refuse it attention,
 
 DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 305 
 
 and not seldom make war upon it because it is a 
 new idea. 
 
 Tiiere are several reasons for this. We love 
 our opinions because — they are ours. They flow 
 along the mental ruts without much exertion ; 
 whereas, the acceptance of a new idea necessi- 
 tates a mental effort. 
 
 They belong to our sect or our party, and are 
 therefore to be cherished. To adopt a new train 
 of thought or of thought to new purposes re- 
 quires moral courage — a quality of mind that 
 cannot be overrated. Any change is not popu- 
 lar. The advocacy of a new thought or a new 
 arrangement of thought subjects one to the 
 charge of being a " crank," an impracticable 
 dreamer, an optimist, a socialist, a communist — 
 scarecrows to deter investigation and keep the 
 timid "in their proper places." 
 
 It is along the line of religious, social, and 
 political thought that the advance has been 
 slowest — where passion is the most liable to ex- 
 citement, where control of opinion is most 
 available for despotism. 
 
 And yet ideas arc the potent agencies in 
 the worhl. The idea of right to private opinion, 
 originated by Martin Luther, broke down the 
 walls of ecclesiastical tyranny and liberated mil- 
 lions from the rule of popery. The idea of
 
 306 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 diurnal revolution changed the direction of 
 thought into new channels, and explained the 
 apparent motions of the heavenly bodies, and 
 sent Columbus across the ocean to explore a new 
 world. The idea of gravitation formulated as- 
 tronomical science and gave to Newton undying 
 fame. A new idea sent Franklin's kite into the 
 clouds and revealed the identity of the light- 
 ning's flash with that mysterious force that now 
 binds the world of thought by the electric wire. 
 
 These new ideas battled with persistent ener- 
 gy against stolid conservatism ; and years of pre- 
 cious time and precious treasure and more precious 
 blood flowed along the path of progress as a sac- 
 rifice to the god of " old opinion." And history 
 is about to repeat itself in the advent of another 
 new idea. The fitful gleam of victory won by 
 this new idea a hundred years ago, and lost in 
 the gloom of old conservatism, is about to burst 
 forth in a new and steady light, whose splendor 
 will envelope the civilized world, and bi-ing joy 
 and peace to its millions of struggling toilers. 
 
 A careful study of the obstacles to be over- 
 come in the advent of a new idea will give us 
 some impression of the difficulties to be sur- 
 mounted in the impending conflict. Happily, we 
 have as the fruits of the Revolutionary struggle 
 the two essential elements of success in the strife
 
 DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 307 
 
 left to us — the Declaration of Independence, the 
 acknowledged charter of our liberties, and the 
 ballot. These are conceded. They dispense 
 with the necessity of compulsory force in an 
 open conflict, and relegate the battle-ground to 
 the domain of ideas. 
 
 We are placed in a position to fight with brain 
 and heart. This is the true method of warfare, 
 its victories are permanent and valuable. Those 
 of Alexander, Hannibal, CVsar, and Napoleon 
 concentrate their lurid glare upon these illustri- 
 ous warri-ors; while those of Aristotle, Plato, 
 Lycurgus, Gracchus, Kepler, Galileo, Columbus, 
 Newton, Jefferson, and a host of others whose 
 weapons were ideas, have shed their light upon 
 the world, and will continue to grow brighter 
 during all the coming ages 
 
 The condition of the people, arising from a 
 multitude of opinions, causing distraction and 
 disunion in their ranks, is the thing to be depre- 
 cated. A small army of well-organized and 
 thoroughly disciplined troops can easily defeat 
 and put to rout a large army of disunited and 
 demoralized soldiers. Their strength lies in their 
 organization, and not in their numbers. And so 
 it is in this political warfare : strength is as re- 
 quisite and as dependent on organization and 
 discipline, which in this case means education.
 
 SOS THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 We are now prepared to consider tlie dlfficul 
 ties. They lie in the condition of the people, and 
 not in the power of their oppressors. There is 
 nothing in the way to permanent and complete 
 victory that the people cannot overcome. The 
 principles upon which it is founded are acknowl- 
 edged and recognized. The intelligence and will 
 of the people constitute the acknowledged power ; 
 and the ballot, by which this power can be exer- 
 cised, is in the acknowledged possession of the 
 people. All tliat is needed is to exercise it. 
 The man who would starve to death with his 
 larder well supplied would be considered a fool 
 or a lunatic. Our enemy's strength is our weak- 
 ness, and our weakness is our disorganized, dis- 
 tracted condition. As long as we remain so, 
 victory over us is easy and certain. We have a 
 common cause, a common interest. We have a 
 common enemy. He is vigilant, active, brave, art- 
 ful, and far-seeing. He takes advantage of our pas- 
 sions by exciting them on the eve of an election. 
 He takes advantage of our vices in keeping their 
 stimulants before us in the form of vile intoxi- 
 cants. He takes advantage of our ignorance by 
 concealing his real objects from view, and put- 
 ting us upon a false scent. He swindles us out 
 of true representation by electing — or rather 
 make us elect for him — his own tools ; or should
 
 DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 309 
 
 by chance an honest man be elected, he manages 
 to silence him in some way. He concentrates 
 and masses us in nearly equally balanced array, 
 one portion of us against the other, to do his 
 bidding. 
 
 It is to be acknowledged that these achieve- 
 ments require cunning, vigilance, energy, perfect 
 organization, and untiring zeal. The difficulty 
 lies in our prejudices, lack of confidence In each 
 other and in ourselves, in our political bias and 
 party zeal, in oiu- want and the fear of poverty, 
 in the contemplation of the enemy's strength, in 
 his wealth and political power, in our own cupid- 
 ity and selfishness, and the discouragement of the 
 failures of our favorite plans. It lies in the force 
 of custom, submission to authority, the pressure 
 of Immediate and pressing demands, and in the 
 inability to provide for them while organizing the 
 elements necessary to the defeat of the enemy. 
 
 The apathy, indifference, and neglect arising 
 from these conditions are difficult to overcome. 
 The people are strangers to each other. The 
 expense and time necessary for assembling and 
 intermingling for counsel are not at their com- 
 mand. They depend on the press for Informa- 
 tion, which Is sure to ignore all intelligence 
 necessary for the improvement of their condition, 
 and it is difficult to establish a system of jour-
 
 310 THE NEW KEPUBLIC. 
 
 nalism by which the necessary communication 
 can be secured. 
 
 Can these difficulties he overcome with the 
 means at the people's command ? 
 
 This is the question pregnant with the most 
 vital issues of the age. They must be overcome. 
 The spirit of Napoleon's question must be in our 
 question — "Is the passage through the moun- 
 tain pass possible ? " asked he of the guide. " It 
 is impracticable," was the reply. " Is it possi- 
 ble?" demanded the warrior, in a stentorian 
 voice. This is the question the people must put, 
 and in the earnestness in which it was put in 
 the midst of Alpine snows. And, like Napoleon, 
 they will turn the impracticable into the possible 
 and achieve a victory. 
 
 It is possible ; and as soon as this fact is real- 
 ized, victory is sure to follow. 
 
 Shall the great mass of the American peo])le 
 be consigned to servile submission to a few rob- 
 ber-chiefs because of their superior knowledge, 
 energy, and skill in concentrating and directing 
 their forces ? Shall the few prey upon and im- 
 poverish the many, while it is conceded that the 
 power of government is derived from the con- 
 sent of the governed? Shall despotism rule 
 while the people hold the ballot? Shall ti'eason 
 triumph over liberty and justice be handcuffed 
 by greed?
 
 DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 311 
 
 The thought that these questions are perti- 
 nent, or can even be suggested with a hundred 
 years of schooling in government, is humiliating, 
 and calculated to excite alarm in the minds of 
 every lover of liberty. 
 
 A change in public opinion is I'apidly going 
 on, and when it reaches the point requisite for 
 action, then action will come. At present the 
 most advanced reform political party sees noth- 
 ing and proposes nothing that promises perma- 
 nent relief from the evils they suffer. 
 
 Reduction in freights and fares, advance in 
 wages and reduction in the price of articles of 
 consumption, lower rates of interest and more 
 liberal terms in rent, are now demanded; the 
 compliance to which would satisfy the people. 
 They ask mitigation, and mitigation is compro- 
 mise. To compromise with robbers and usurpers 
 is to acknowledge the right to rob and usurp. 
 
 "It is best that the truth be fully stated and 
 clearly recognized. lie who sees the truth let him 
 proclaim it, without asking who is for it or w^ho is 
 against it. This is not radicalism in the bad sense 
 which 80 many attach to the word. It is conserva- 
 tism in the true sense." — Henry George. 
 
 A people who clearly comprehend their rights, 
 who appreciate their value, and are able to real- 
 ize the blessings their full exercise would confer,
 
 312 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 would lose no time in providing the means for 
 tlieir enjoyment. As long as the people think 
 the theory of their government is right, there is 
 no possibility of a change. 
 
 We claim the right not only to choose our ser- 
 vants to perform prescribed duties, and to hold 
 them responsible, but to alter, amend, or abolish 
 the Constitution, and frame one to our liking if 
 Ave think it necessary ; yet we go on repeating 
 the farce over and over, suffer defeat in all meas- 
 ureS'of redress in legislatures and courts, while 
 oligarchies and petty aristocracies multiply and 
 grow stronger year by year. Every effort the 
 people make in their behalf is in some way foiled 
 and a new advantage for corporate interest 
 gained. To see this and realize it is tlie first 
 step. Thought will thereby be aroused, investi- 
 gation succeed, intelligence develop ; organiza- 
 tion will follow, and a power that will wrest 
 from the hand of greed the people's wealth, and 
 convert the machinations of political chicanery 
 into an honest government. 
 
 No one can compute the evils of war. In the 
 work of building up a true republic there is no 
 necessity for it. The battle-field is the brain 
 and heart, and the weapons ideas propelled by 
 the love of justice, equality, and liberty. The 
 victory won upon this field will be lasting, benefi- 
 cent, glorious.
 
 SUMMARY. 313 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 "Is it right, is it fair. 
 That we perish of despair, 
 In this land, on this soil, 
 
 Where our destiny is set, 
 "Which we cultured with our toil 
 
 And watered with our sweat ? 
 We have plowed, we have sown, j^» 
 
 But the crop is not our own ; 
 We have reaped, but harpy hands 
 Swept the harvest from our lands." 
 
 From what has been Avritten, we are able to 
 obtain some Idea of what a republican govern- 
 ment should be. Its object is to secure the full- 
 est and freest exercise of the natural rights of the 
 citizen consistent with good government. These 
 rights have been considered, and the means for 
 their exercise somewhat discussed. 
 
 The bounties of nature so generously bestowed 
 by our Creator are to be secured alike to all his 
 children. Land is the primary source of all the 
 means of life. The first consideration is a just 
 method by which a just portion is secured to all 
 who desire to occupy and use it — or, rather, the 
 necessity of such occupancy and use ; the mode 
 is to be prescribed by law. 
 11
 
 314 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 Those who control the land, and can fix the 
 terms of occupation, hold a power over the occu- 
 pants. He who controls the means of life con- 
 trols life itself. Since land is the primary source 
 of the means of life, and is controlled in large 
 quantities by few individuals, we can easily per- 
 ceive the evils of land monopoly. The necessity 
 of removing this evil is apparent to all. A true 
 republic cannot exist with our present laws of 
 land tenure. 
 
 Now what is the duty of the citizen ? Some 
 means must be adopted by which the natural 
 rights of the people to the land are secured ; and 
 this right transcends in importance all others. 
 What that method is must be determined by the 
 people. 
 
 A medium of exchange is of next importance. 
 The false teachings designedly set up by those 
 interested in controlling the currency have en- 
 abled them to so mystify the public mind as to 
 secure such control. 
 
 The necessity of a clear and comprehensive 
 understanding of money, its nature and func- 
 tions, is so obvious that no one can fail to see it. 
 The equal exchange of values would prevent 
 their accumulation in the hands of those who 
 control the volume of circulation. In this con- 
 sists the evil. The effectual method by which
 
 SUMMARY. 315 
 
 this is done is to make gold and silver the basis. 
 So long as this idea prevails, there is no hope for 
 a system of finance that will secure all the bene- 
 fits of money to the people, and enable them to 
 avoid the evils that arise from it. AVith the con- 
 trol of the volume of currency in the hands of 
 the few, and for their benefit, a republic cannot 
 exist. 
 
 The history of our government is ample proof 
 of this. The moneyed corporations and capital- 
 ists hold absolute control over the industries of 
 the country : labor and its products, and con- 
 sequently the laborer and producer, are dependent 
 on those who conti*ol the money of the country. 
 This creates distinctions between the many and 
 the few : the many toil and suffer ; the few are 
 clothed in "purple and fine linen, and fare 
 sumptuously every day." 
 
 This distinction creates aristocracies, and aris- 
 tocracies cannot exist in a republic. Therefore, 
 a system of finance that will meet the demands 
 of the people in effecting an equal exchange and 
 distribution of values is an imperative necessity. 
 
 Regulation of transportation and travel, that 
 will secure all their benefits to the people at 
 actual cost, is an equal necessity. The history of 
 transportation in this country demonstrates the 
 fact that vast wealth is accumulated by corpora-
 
 316 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 tions tliat control transportation and travel at 
 the expense of the people. The- rights of the 
 people must be secured In the best modes and 
 cheapest rates before a true republic can exist. 
 
 Telegraphic communication should constitute 
 part of the postal system, thus increasing the 
 facilities for the spread of intelligence. So far, 
 this important and valuable agent is controlled, 
 and the people are made dependent on those who 
 control it, not onlyybr intelligence, but for what 
 intelligence they receive—often false, and always 
 such as serves the purposes of the managers. 
 Therefore, the telegraph system must be made 
 to serve the people's interests. This is essential 
 to the existence of republican government. 
 
 The revenues of the government must be pro- 
 vided by a tax on property and not on labor. 
 The burden would then be borne equally by all 
 in proportion to their ability to bear it. The his- 
 tory of our revenue system shows the gross in- 
 justice of it by imposing an undue burden on the 
 laboring classes and protecting capitalists, and 
 by destroying one of the most important and val- 
 uable industries of the country — marine com- 
 merce. This condition is incompatible with a 
 government wherein equal rights to all are to be 
 exercised and enjoyed by all. 
 
 The co-existence of natural rights and corpor-
 
 SUMMARY. 317 
 
 ate power Is impossible in a true republic, for 
 corporate power Is the usurpation of natural 
 rights. Corporations have become the agents 
 by which all political and industrial powers are 
 exercised — in the Interests of corporations. The 
 exercise of corporate power vested by law and 
 sustained by the courts has obtained such con- 
 trol over land, over money, over transportation, 
 and all popular Interests, that the people are 
 made dependent on them, and are compelled to 
 submit to their dictation. The history of our 
 country proves this also. Therefore, corporations 
 for private gain and Individual aggrandizement 
 are at war with the true Interests of a republic. 
 
 An elective system by which proportional 
 representation can be secured Is an Indispensable 
 requirement of a true republic. In the election 
 of legislators or any other body of men clothed 
 with specific powers, as many citizens as possible 
 should be represented. As our election laws 
 now exist, It can be shown that a very small mi- 
 nority of the people may elect. The system of 
 conventions for nominating candidates are con- 
 trolled in the interests of corporations, and their 
 agents and elections are but the ratification of 
 some one whose manipulators are more skillful 
 or can command more " influence." 
 
 Our legislative system, consisting of two
 
 318 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 branches, is inconsistent with popuhir representa- 
 tion. It renders legishition difficult and dilatory, 
 and offers ample opportunity for defeating the 
 people's will and securing class interests. It is 
 useless, cumbersome, dilatory, and open to cor- 
 ruption and destructive to republican govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The appointing and veto power are kingly pre- 
 rogatives and a usurpation of natural rights. 
 The office of commander-in-chief of all the mili- 
 tary and naval forces of the nation is another. 
 The appointing power brings to his support a 
 class of men who by their dependence and sense 
 of obligation for their place feel bound to serve 
 their master. His veto power enables him to 
 defeat national legislation, measured by a major- 
 ity verging on two-thirds of both branches. 
 His military authority gives him immense pres- 
 tige and power, which he may exercise at his 
 discretion. 
 
 A judiciary system is in existence in our gov- 
 ernment that is the source of a vast amount of 
 corruption and fraud, and bears heavily upon the 
 people. Predicated on the authority of law, it 
 only aims to deal with law and the precedents 
 established by decisions of courts, some of which 
 were made more than a hundred years ago! 
 Strange that men of mature minds and experience
 
 SUMMARY. 319 
 
 should be compelled to go back a hundred years 
 and search among the musty volumes of judicial 
 decisions to determine a case in which the parties 
 to it demand simple justice ! The whole system 
 is defended and supported, not for the sake of 
 justice, but because it is a source of vast revenue 
 and power to a class of men trained in the ab- 
 struse subtleties of the law — not a necessary, 
 but an unnecessary, evil ; for it has been shown 
 that a system of adjudication in which justice 
 can be secured independent of " law courts," 
 and the paraphernalia, expense, delay, appeal, 
 vexation, and uncertainty of trials at law, is in- 
 compatible with a republican government. 
 
 Courts profess not only to administer the law, 
 but to interpret the law, and although the law- 
 making power is declared to be supreme, the 
 court declares this or that law null and void by 
 its own authority. The courts which often set 
 aside equitable cases should themselves be set 
 aside, and the more simjsle, speedy, direct, and 
 less expensive system of arbitration be substi- 
 tuted. Instead of justice, we have law ; instead 
 of reason, we have authority. An eminent law- 
 yer has given his testimony : 
 
 " It has been the custom from time immemorial 
 for courts to be governed and controlled by prece- 
 dents. This is adopted in order that the law may
 
 320 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 be settled and certain. When questions arise un- 
 der the statutes, the meaning of which is ambigu- 
 ous, resort is had to former decisions under lilie 
 statutes for a rule of construction, and thus the law 
 is settled. "We accept the decision as the law, and 
 to criticise it is deemed discourteous to the court 
 making it. To call in question the motives of the 
 courts or to doubt their wisdom is deemed eank 
 TEEASON. The rule governing them inay be of an- 
 cient date ; the reason for its adoption may have 
 long ceased; the eule itself may be obsolete. 
 .... Most of these old precedents originated in 
 monarchical countries where all doubtful questions 
 were construed in favor of the crown, and where 
 the rights of the people always yielded to kingly 
 jn-erogative The j^ractice of solving consti- 
 tutional problems by resort to old monarchical pre- 
 cedents, and the adoption of the reasoning of the 
 high courts of the king's exchequer, should not be 
 tolerated in a republic. Our courts should be 
 courts of the people, and not a star-chamber for the 
 protection and perpetration of the monarchical dog- 
 ma that ' it is absolutely necessary to independent 
 national existence that the government should have 
 a firm hold on the two great sovereign instrumen- 
 talities of the sword and the purse,' as was declared 
 by the Supreme Court of the United States in De- 
 cember, 1871. Such declarations are at war with our 
 ideas of republican government. It has no support, 
 save in despotic governments and decisions emanat- 
 ing from them ; yet it is the doctrine that must ob- 
 tain if the recent decisions of the Supreme Court are 
 to remain as the settled law of the nation. To accept 
 this doctrine as the final exposition of the relative 
 rights of the people and the government is to ac- 
 knowledge that the agents and servants of the peo-
 
 SUMMARY. 321 
 
 pie, elected and appointed to office, become their 
 masters, clothed with imperial power." — D. C. 
 Cloud. 
 
 The Supreme Court declares what is law and 
 what is not law, what is constitutional and what 
 is not. It administers the law or not in accord" 
 ance with its supreme pleasure. It is not respon- 
 sible to the people ; it is tlie supreme autocrat. 
 
 There could not have been devised a more 
 successful and effectual method of defeating jus- 
 tice, and giving full scope and free play to legal 
 minds, than the jury system. The less a man 
 knows, the better qualified he is for a juror. If 
 he reads the news and forms an opinion, he can- 
 not serve. Integrity and intelligence tell against 
 him. Men unaccustomed to continuous thought 
 and logical processes are kept for hours, and 
 sometimes for days, exposed to the jDitiless storm 
 of contentious wrangling and intricate sophis- 
 tries, become so wearied and confused that they 
 are unable to put two ideas in logical order. 
 What chance for justice, when with confused and 
 exhausted minds they retire for deliberation, to 
 grapple with the abstruse subtleties of the law, 
 and the contending arguments of the opposing 
 counsel? One juryman, more wise or more ob- 
 stinate, offsets the eleven, and the case goes back 
 to the court to repeat the farce. 
 14*
 
 322 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 Besides, men are taken from their business, 
 and kept for days in the custody of the court for 
 the purpose of determining whether they are 
 stupid enough for first-chiss jurymen. Custom 
 has fortified the practice, and the people think 
 they must submit. 
 
 Thus tlie people suffer and are robbed accord- 
 ing to law ; they support an army of men skilled 
 in legal legerdemain, who produce nothing but 
 evil, according to law. 
 
 Education, which involves the very existence 
 of a republic, has proved insufficient and inade- 
 quate to the high and important offices it is de- 
 signed to perform. With hundreds of millions 
 of dollars expended in its support, and the great 
 expectations the people have cherished, how little 
 real service it has rendered ! Years of the most 
 precious period of life are wasted in the acquisi- 
 tion of knowledge never called into use ; while 
 other knowledge, waiting the opportunity of the 
 master to impart, and which the imperative 
 necessities of life demand, is not even dreamed of 
 by the educators of the land. The principles of 
 political science, the very basis of society and 
 government, are unknown to the educational cur- 
 riculum, indispensable to popular government ; 
 it should be the great central idea of popular 
 education. The necessity of qualification for
 
 SUMMARY. 323 
 
 citizenship has been shown. Let it be realized 
 in its full force. 
 
 This brief enumeration of objections, fatal to a 
 true republic, will indicate the plan and outline of 
 such a government as was contemplated by the 
 patriot fathers, and which was partially set in 
 operation for a brief period. 
 
 The claim of equal natural rights made sacred 
 and inalienable by divine endowment, and the 
 right to organize and establish a government to 
 secure their free exercise, asserted and main- 
 tained in defiance of the despotism of the Old 
 World, was heroic, grand, and sublime. After 
 a hundred years of experience in an ineffectual 
 struggle to support a republican government, 
 •and with the aid advancing knowledge and the 
 history of other governments as lights and warn- 
 nings, the people should be able to frame a gov- 
 ernment that will be a republic in fact as well as 
 in name. 
 
 It is expected, as a matter of course, that the 
 people, fully sensible of their great wrongs, and 
 of the rights they hold by divine inheritance, and 
 appreciating the means and opportunities at 
 their disposal, will proceed without delay, and 
 show to the world that they have rights and are 
 able to maintain them. 
 
 When we think of what might be, what the
 
 324 THE NEAV REPUBLIC. 
 
 almost Infinite capacity for improvement, for 
 human culture, for happiness ; when we think of 
 the plenitude of wealth that might be produced, 
 of the freedom we might enjoy, with the appli- 
 ances of all these already at our hands ; when 
 we think of the beautiful, elegant homes, and 
 their smiling, happy inmates ; when we think how 
 poor, how pitiful, how little better than barbar- 
 ism, is this land of civilization, with its teeming 
 millions toiling with calloused hands, with 
 bended backs, and stiffened joints : if we could 
 realize their cares and anxieties, their want and 
 fear of want, and their struggles with pov- 
 erty and debt ; if we could at once set this 
 picture and that side by side — what feelings 
 of recfret and indignation would fill the soul ! 
 Yet these pictures are not overdrawn. 
 
 This is a broad and rich land. A beneficent 
 Father has endowed it with inexhaustible nat- 
 ural resources, and his children with unmeas- 
 ured capacities and possibilities, and yet we 
 groan with burdens heaped upon us by those 
 who are in theory our equals, but in reality ten 
 thousand times stronger, because we have bowed 
 down to the authority of laws enacted for the ex- 
 press purpose of taking our power unto them- 
 selves. 
 
 In our senseless zeal for party, we have
 
 SUMMARY. 325 
 
 placed in power men who have sought their 
 places with the sole intent of betraying us, and 
 then i-eap for themselves a reward for their 
 treachery ! We have done this repeatedly. We 
 have a hundred years' experience, and that of 
 other nations for thousands of years, yet we 
 struggle in the toils of error, succumb to the 
 weakness of ignorance, and flounder in the sea of 
 political empiricism ! We go back more than a 
 hundred years and search amid the vague specu- 
 lations of monarchists for light to guide us in 
 framing and supporting republican institutions ! 
 
 With righteous indignation and heroic energy 
 we strip off the robes of royalty, and in a few 
 short years we don them in the name of liberty. 
 We hurl with contempt the insignia of nobility 
 and its supporters, primogeniture and entail from 
 the pages of our fundamental law, and forthwith 
 endow the same instrument with the purple and 
 fine linen of corporate power. With British 
 common law, British courts, British finance, 
 British legislation, and British executive prerog- 
 atives transferred to American soil, we vainly 
 imagine we are living in a republic. 
 
 May this delusion be swept away ; may we be 
 enabled to behold our condition as it is; and then 
 with one heart and with one intent stand forth 
 resolved to be free.
 
 326 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 To do this, we must demand amendments to 
 the Constitution by which the natural and in- 
 alienable rights of the people will be secured in 
 their free and full exercise. These rights are 
 divinely endowed ; they are guaranteed by the 
 Declaration of Independence ; they were con- 
 ceived in the highest and holiest aspirations of 
 the human soul, and brought forth amid the din 
 of battle and the flow of blood — " that when- 
 ever ANY FORM OF GOVERNMENT BECOMES 
 DESTRUCTIVE OF THESE ENDS, .... TO SE- 
 CURE THE RIGHTS OF THE GOVERNED, .... IT 
 IS THE RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO ALTER OR 
 ABOLISH IT, AND TO INSTITUTE A NEW GOVERN- 
 MENT, LAYING ITS FOUNDATION ON SUCH PRIN- 
 CIPLES AND ORGANIZING ITS POWERS IN SUCH 
 FORM AS TO THEM SHALL SEEM MOST LIKELY 
 TO EFFECT THEIR SAFETY AND HAPPINESS."
 
 SYI^TOPSIS 
 
 THE NEW REPUBLIC. 
 
 DEFINITION. 
 
 Popular o;overnment is a national association 
 in which all its citizens are recognized as possess- 
 ing equal rights, privileges, and opportunities. 
 
 The term "popular government" means a "govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people, for the people " ; 
 that is, one in which the will of the people is fairly 
 and properly expressed and exercised. 
 
 POWER. 
 
 The power of such a government is derived 
 
 " from the consent of the governed." 
 
 There are essentially two forms of government : 
 in the one, the power is assumed or usurped, and 
 is vested in one or moi-e persons who claim the 
 right to rule ; such government is a monarchy, 
 usually in some modified form, an aristocracy, or a 
 confederation of petty aristocracies, constituting 
 an oligarchy. In the other, the power, emanating
 
 328 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 from the people by virtue of their natural rights, is 
 delegated to representatives to execute the people's 
 will ; this form of government is a republic. In 
 the former, it is permission by or submission to 
 usurped ])0wers ; in the latter, it is consent which 
 implies volition, will, by the governed. Since voli- 
 tion means freedom of action, a government deriv- 
 ing its power from the consent of the governed 
 must be a free government. 
 
 PURPOSE. 
 
 The object of popular government is the regu- 
 lation and protection of all its citizens in the full 
 and free exercise of their natural rights and op- 
 portunities. 
 
 In monarchies and aristocracies, the purpose of 
 government is the aggrandizement of those who 
 govern at the expense of the governed ; in a popu- 
 lar government all the benefits go to the governed. 
 It follows, as an inevitable conclusion, that if " all 
 men are created equal ; that they are endowed by 
 their Creator Avith certain inalienable rights " — all 
 must be equal beneficiaries in any scheme of gov- 
 ernment instituted " to secure these rights." 
 
 CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR ITS EXISTENCE. 
 
 Popular government can only exist when there 
 
 is intelligence in its citizens to comprehend the 
 
 principles upon which it is based, and virtue to 
 
 appreciate the rights upon which it is founded. 
 
 No duty can be properly performed without due 
 qualification of those upon whom such duty de-
 
 «TNOPSis. 329 
 
 volves. No one would intrust another with any- 
 kind of work or business, unless he was satisfied as 
 to the qualification of the person so intrusted for 
 that work or business ; for no one could succeed 
 in any enteri:)rise or business without the proper 
 knowledge and skill. No one can intrust another 
 unless he himself understands the work to be per- 
 formed, with any prospect of success. If the em- 
 ployer be ignorant, he is dependent on the employee 
 and at his mercy. Designing knaves seek such em- 
 ployers because they can take advantage of them. 
 In popular government the people are the employ- 
 ers and their only safeguard is their intelligence. 
 
 Not only is intelligence necessary, but the ability 
 to appreciate the value of human rights is essential 
 to their preservation and enjoyment. The love of 
 justice must be supreme; for justice is to the men- 
 tal what gravitation is to the physical world — the 
 great regulator of the equilibrium of values, as 
 gravity is that of forces. If values are duly appre- 
 ciated, they are secured and utilized ; if not, they 
 cannot be. Therefore, there must be such luve of 
 justice in the people that any violation of it would 
 be deemed sacrilege.. 
 
 The value of these rights is equal to life itself ; 
 and life is valuable only so far as they are exercised 
 and utilized. Hence, the conditions necessary to 
 the existence and maintenance of a popular govern- 
 ment must depend on the intelligence and virtue of 
 its citizens. 
 
 ENUMERATION AND DEFINITION OF RIGHTS. 
 
 I. The right to live ; that is, to the free and 
 unrestrained activity of all the physical powers 
 and mental faculties of the individual in the le- 
 gitimate pursuits of life.
 
 330 SYNOP?iIS. 
 
 Tliis is pei*3onal freedom, without which no one 
 can truly be said to live ; namely, to carry out all 
 the purposes of life ; although he may in a certain 
 sense be said to exist. 
 
 11. Tlie means of life, which consist in — 
 (1.) The possession and free use of all the 
 natural elements of wealth — God's free gifts to 
 man — sunlight, air, water, and the natural prod- 
 ucts in it, and land with its natural productions, 
 as minerals, metals, forests, and wild animals and 
 fruits. 
 
 Since these natural means of wealth are produced 
 by no man, they belong to no man ; but as " God 
 is no respecter of persons," they belong to all 
 equally alike. They are sources of supply for man's 
 consumption, and as all equally need the supply for 
 consiimption, all are equally entitled to the means 
 for obtaining the supply for consumption. 
 
 Sunlight is the great vivifying j^rinciple of the 
 earth : all life and organization depend upon it. 
 
 Air is so essential to life that were one compelled 
 to walk two hundred yards to reach it, he would 
 perish in the attempt. Hence it envelopes the 
 whole earth, and presses into every nook and cor- 
 ner where life exists. 
 
 Water enters into every structure of organized 
 beings, and of most of them constitutes the 
 greater part. It is the great fertilizer of the soil, 
 and an essential supporter of life. 
 
 Land is the source of the means of life, and those 
 who control it control the means of life. In densely 
 populated countries, this condition is fully realized. 
 In our country the possession and control of vast
 
 SY>opsis. 331 
 
 tracts of land are rapidly passing into the hands of a 
 few. As population increased, the area of our coun- 
 try expanded and the pressure was not felt ; but 
 its limits are now nearly reached, population is 
 flowing in and increasing among us, and the time 
 is not far distant, when, by accumulation in large 
 tracts in the hands of the few and increase of popu- 
 lation, there is nothing to prevent the poverty and 
 enslavement of the many by the few. 
 
 (2.) (a.) The use and benefits of the forces 
 evolved by the expansive power of heat and 
 other means for the evolution of force. 
 
 The law by which force is evolved is God's law, 
 and the benefits derived from it belong alike to all 
 his children. The value of these forces may be es- 
 timated by the consideration of the fact that the 
 evolution of force is only limited by the demand 
 for it in the propulsion of machinery, and that 
 in the power of steam alone more force is 
 evolved than is equal to the united muscular force 
 of manual labor. 
 
 (6.) The benefits arising from the disturb- 
 ance of static conditions by electric and magnetic 
 agencies, by wiiich messages are conveyed in- 
 stantaneously for thousands of miles ; and other 
 uses for man's progress and impi'ovement. 
 
 In the i^resent state of the civilization of the 
 world, these agencies are indisi)ensable, and their 
 value is beyond computation, and all are equally 
 entitled to their benefits. 
 
 (c.) The advantages of tlie reception and dis- 
 tribution of force by mechanical contrivances.
 
 332 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 By means of labor-saving macliinery, the produc- 
 ivo power of wealth has been increased tenfold. 
 This increase in the facility for the production of 
 values belongs to all, because it is obtained by 
 natural law, which is God's law. The inventor 
 should be compensated, not for the value of his in- 
 vention, but for the time, labor, and expense em- 
 ployed in his work. 
 
 (3.) The issue and control of a medium of cir- 
 culation for the exchange of values. 
 
 Money is simply a device for the exchange of 
 commodities, and its authority is derived from law, 
 that is, the mutual agreement of all in the govern- 
 ment to accept as a token of value some device 
 upon which value is expressed in the unit or units 
 of value, in exchange for a value in some commod- 
 ity or service rendered. 
 
 By this contrivance, values to any amount may 
 be conveyed at any time and to any place within 
 the jurisdiction of the government, and converted 
 (in common parlance) into anything within the 
 circle of exchange, at the option of the holder. So 
 valuable is this device that it has become a neces- 
 sity of civilization, and is monopolized for the pur- 
 poses of gain. Since this comes by the authority of 
 the people, it belongs to them, and their right to 
 all its benefits is as clear as that to exchange values. 
 
 (4.) The best and cheapest methods for travel, 
 
 transportation, and lines of communication for 
 
 intelligence. 
 
 This right is as clear as the necessity for it. If 
 people have the right to travel and transport the 
 products of their labor, they have a right to the
 
 SYNOPSIS. 333 
 
 best facilities at a just cost for the service ; and 
 ihis irai:)lies the right to control all modes of transit 
 and travel, and communicating lines. 
 
 (5.) The full and unrestricted use and enjoy- 
 ment of all tl;c products of the labor of each 
 individual, or their full equivalent in other prod- 
 ucts by equal exchange. 
 
 The unequal distribution of wealth by the 
 monopoly of land and by an unjust monetary sys- 
 tem is one of the direct and most effective means 
 by which labor is robbed and the wealth-producer 
 made dependent on the landlords and money- 
 dealers. 
 
 (6.) The education of the people, and due prep- 
 aration for the duties of life, in the highest de- 
 gree of intellectual, moral, assthetic, and spiritual 
 culture; in the preservation of health, and in 
 the enjoyment of social and domestic life. 
 
 DECLARATION. 
 
 We hold that the above-enumerated rights 
 belong by divine inheritence to all men: they 
 are therefore sacred ; by virtue of their divine 
 origin they are inalienable : therefore, the depri- 
 vation of them by force or fraud is a crime ; 
 " that to secure these rights, governments are in- 
 stituted among men, deriving their just powers 
 from the consent of the governed ; that when- 
 ever any form of government becomes destruc-
 
 334 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 tlve of these ends, it Is the right of the people to 
 altar or abolish it, and to Institute a new govern- 
 ment, laying Its foundations on such principles 
 and organizing its powers in such form as to 
 them shall seem most likely to effect their safety 
 and happiness. Prudence, .indeed, will dictate 
 that ffovernment lono; established should not be 
 changed for lIo;ht and transient causes ; and ac- 
 cordlngly, all experience hath shown that man- 
 kind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are 
 sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing 
 the forms to which they are accustomed. But 
 when a long train of abuses and usurpations^ 
 pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a de- 
 sign to reduce them under absolute despotism, it 
 
 IS THEIR RIGHT, IT IS THEIR DUTY, TO THROW 
 OFF SUCH GOVERNMENT AND TO PROVIDE NEW 
 GUARDS FOR THEIR FUTURE SECURITY." 
 
 TO SECURE AND ENJOY THESE RIGHTS, 
 
 A radical reconstruction of the Constitution of 
 our exlstlno- o-overnment is necessary in abrogat- 
 ing— 
 
 I. (1.) All vested powers whereby public 
 service is performed, beyond the control of the 
 people. 
 
 Powers vested beyond the control of the people 
 is a surrender of their natural rights, and must ne-
 
 SYNOPSIS. 335 
 
 cessarily prove fatal to popular government so long 
 as ambitious and designing men seek such powers 
 in order to exercise them for their own aggrandize- 
 ment. It is not necessary to say that such is the 
 fact in our government ; it is only necessary to 
 state it. 
 
 All political power should be delegated, not 
 vested, and return to the peo2)le by the expiration 
 of the term of office. 
 
 By authority of the Federal Constitution, powers 
 are vested beyond control and exercised by design- 
 ing men who liave sought these opportunities for 
 self-aggrandizement; whence arise the evils of gov- 
 ernment, and not from the natural dislionesty of 
 men. While men are ruled by selfishness and our 
 present system of government exists, a better polit- 
 ical condition is impossible ; for men will take all 
 they seek. The tendency is towards a worse con- 
 dition. Reform must come from the people and 
 through a reconstruction of the government in the 
 change of their organic law. 
 
 (2.) The power vested in public oflScers to 
 a,ppoint others to public service who are responsi- 
 ble to the people for their acts. 
 
 The relation between the employer and the em- 
 ployee must be direct, since the latter is always 
 responsible to the former. 
 
 All the evils of our civil service have arisen by 
 the abuse of power in those who aim to please their 
 patron, rather than the people whom they are re- 
 quired to serve. 
 
 (3.) All powers and rights vested in individ- 
 uals in a corporate capacity, for individual enter- 
 prise.
 
 336 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 The title of nobility and " bill of attainder " are 
 prohibited in the Constitution of tlie United States, 
 but the power for evil thus sought to be averted 
 is more than supplied by the power in our govern- 
 ment to charter coriDorations. By means of these, 
 capital is aggregated and associated, by means of 
 which powers are created that have grown to such 
 an extent that all the departments of the govern- 
 ment have succumbed to their baleful influeoce. 
 They have consolidated and made common cause 
 against the rights and interests of the wealth-pro- 
 ducers and wage-earners, and thus the wealth of 
 the nation is largely in the possession and con- 
 trol of a very small number of its citizens. This 
 state of affairs is absolutely incompatible with pop- 
 ular government ; class distinctions are built up, 
 which render equality of citizenship impossible. 
 
 (4.) The senatorial department in all legisla- 
 tive bodies. 
 
 The excuse for this department in the federal 
 legislature is, that the States must be equally rep- 
 resented in the national legislature. There is no 
 interest that can affect one State more than another, 
 since their interests are identical throughout. The 
 national sovereignty is to be preserved and main- 
 tained, and all the States are alike interested in 
 that. Since they are the equal members of one 
 body, what affects one would affect the others in 
 the same way. Measures for defense, for revenue, 
 for the election of federal officers, foreign relations, 
 issue of a circulating medium, regulation of weights 
 and measures, postal and other public service, In- 
 dian affairs, etc., concern one State as much as an- 
 other; and as all the States are represented in the 
 popular branch, the aristocratic branch has no right
 
 SYNOPSIS. 337 
 
 or excuse to exist. State Senates do not have even 
 this excuse, 
 
 (5.) Our entire judiciary system, wherein 
 justice is ignored, immoralities and crimes are 
 encouraged and instigated, as misrepresentation, 
 falsehood, fraudulent transactions, forgery, per- 
 j-iry, and subornation, provoked by the strife of 
 contending litigants, and the cupidity of attor- 
 neys who resort to quibbles, technicalities, com- 
 plications in pleading, looseness and license in 
 the construction and interpretation of law, delays 
 and appeals, by which villainy is rewarded, and 
 thousands upon thousands of honest citizens are 
 defrauded and ruined ; and a vast army of non- 
 producers lives in wealth and luxury at the ex- 
 pense of the wealth-producers ; being a class of 
 disciplined and skilled experts, trained in the 
 specialties and intricacies of a subtle craft, who 
 provoke and encourage litigation, sell their ser- 
 vices to known and notorious criminals, and 
 greedy, unscrupulous corporations in their 
 schemes of robbery and plunder by legislative 
 means, and through the instrumentalities of the 
 courts of law. 
 
 The abrogation of this department of our gov- 
 ernment would remove a vast burden from the peo- 
 ple in the way of expense, and a fearful source of 
 corruption and crime and a baleful influence on the 
 morals of the community. The tendency to the com- 
 15
 
 338 SYNOPSIS. " 
 
 mission of crime is increased by the well-known 
 fact that any one who can command money enjoys 
 immunities denied to others. 
 
 II. The second measui-e essential in the sup- 
 port of popular gavernment is the repeal of all 
 existing laws of- — 
 
 (1.) Land tenures by which thousands and 
 
 and even millions of acres of land are held and 
 
 controlled by single individuals and corporations, 
 
 and used by means of wage-labor, or for rent, or 
 
 held for speculation for the accumulation of 
 
 wealth. 
 
 By the power vested in Congress by the Federal 
 Constitution in disposing of the public domain, 
 an area of land equal to fourteen States of the 
 Union has been granted to railway corjDorations. 
 Foreign capitalists have purchased for a mere nom- 
 inal price millions of acres from which they expect 
 to realize immense profits at the expense of their 
 fellow-men. By these vested powers — in Congress 
 for the disposal of the public domain in vast tracts 
 and the power permitting the grant of charters to 
 corporations — the people have been robbed of this 
 vast amount of land, sufficient to subsist a popula- 
 tion of thirty millions, already held by them. At 
 the same time, millions of American citizens are 
 homeless and struggling in hopeless poverty. With 
 the horrors of Irish tenantry as an example, we 
 still persist in tolerating a like system with only a 
 feeble protest. 
 
 (2.) By which the national finances are con- 
 trolled for private gain ; banking corporations
 
 SYNOPSIS. 339 
 
 conducted in the issue of their jn-ivate notes as a 
 circulating medium, demanding interest on their 
 own debts, and receiving it on the capital they 
 invest, and on deposits, which is other peoples' 
 money ; and by which a national debt has been 
 created, and from which a vast income is realized 
 to the holders of government bonds. 
 
 By these laws, the volume of the circulating me- 
 dium is controlled in the interests of the money 
 power and manipulated by the government at their 
 command. 
 
 Laws are now in force by which the banks are 
 able to lend more than double their capital of other 
 people's money, besides drawing interest on about 
 $400,000,000 of United States bonds. In other 
 Avords, the actual use of money by the national 
 banks, as compared with their capital, is multiplied • 
 twice in loans on deposits, eight-tenths times in 
 United Stafes bonds, and one-half times in loans of 
 their own money, increasing their actual working 
 capital threefold and thirty per cent over; and 
 this too, independent of their resources, surplus, 
 real estate, and other property. While the people 
 are compelled to iKiy interest on what they owe, 
 banking corporations receive interest on their debts. 
 While the people cannot borrow on half of their 
 capital, the banking corporations can loan on more 
 than three times their working capital, and get in- 
 terest on all their loans. 
 
 By laws now existing, bonds greatly below par 
 were purchased with money purposely depreciated. 
 Tliese bonds were made solvent by the solemn 
 pledge of the government, by becoming a part of 
 the Constitution, and then greatly enhanced in
 
 340 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 value by declaring them payable in coin, or its 
 equivalent; and by the demonetization of silver 
 they were further increased in value, until they 
 command a premium of from 10 to 25 per cent 
 above gold coin. And all this increase in the value 
 of the people's debt without aay benefit whatever 
 to the people themselves, which means taking that 
 much from labor. 
 
 (3.) By which individuals and corporations 
 have been given the ownership, control, and 
 operation of lines for ti'avel, transportation, and 
 communication of intelligence, and all the bene- 
 fits of the same. 
 
 Railways have been declared public highways by 
 the highest authority of the government and the 
 right of the States to control them. " I hold," says 
 Judge Black, " that a railroad charter without a 
 reasonable limit to charge is void. The road is not 
 a public highway if the managers charge just v/hat 
 
 they please To say the State cannot save the 
 
 peoj)le from such extortion and fraud is to utter a 
 preposterous absurdity. By the right of eminent 
 domain the State always has the power to abate a 
 monopoly." And yet the corporations continue to 
 defy the courts when their decisions are averse to 
 their interests, and employ means to secure im- 
 munities and privileges by the courts- 
 Judge Black continues: "Mr. Gowen [President 
 of the Eeading Railroad Company] says the rail- 
 roads liave gr^at power with the courts. I don't 
 know how that is, but really they are weak and 
 jDOwerless in any issue that brings them before 
 the people. For every millionaire, they have 
 made a thousand paupers ; for every one they have
 
 SYNOPSIS. 341 
 
 done a favor to, they have cheated ten thousand ; 
 and these are the things that will be remembered in 
 a popular issue." 
 
 The telegraph system, which now extends over 
 more than one hundred thousand miles of line, 
 yields a net revenue of over $6,000,000 a year. By 
 it the intelligence of the country is monopolized, and 
 all under the control of one man ! The evils of 
 this may in some degree be perceived, when it is 
 considered that such intelligence is so raodilied by 
 falsehood and suppression of facts, that the true 
 uses for which it was designed have been perverted, 
 and it proves an evil instead of a benefit. 
 
 C4.) For levying duties on imported commodi- 
 ties, whereby a burden, ostensibly for revenue, is 
 laid on labor instead of on the property of the 
 people, and whereby the greater part of the 
 tax thus levied goes to further enrich already 
 wealthy corporations at the expense of labor. 
 
 In the early period of our national existence, a 
 need was felt to foster and encourage the manufac- 
 turing interests of the country. This was before 
 corporations were created and while universal in- 
 terest was felt in national prosperity. At that 
 time labor-saving machinery was in its infancy 
 and the profits on capital were small. The duty 
 levied was to be added to the price of manufac- 
 tured commodities, with the intention of enabling 
 the employer to increase the wages of his em- 
 ployees, and thus stimulate the industries of the 
 nation. 
 
 Besides, the duties collected on foreign imports 
 would serve as a revenue for the general govern-
 
 842 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 ment. Thus a convenient means for obtaining a 
 revenue would be added to the aid and encourage- 
 ment in the manufacturing industries of the coun- 
 try. 
 
 The introduction of Labor-saving machinery has 
 rendered in a great measure the capitalist indepen- 
 dent of manual labor ; and the result is a material 
 lessening in the demand for it ; the aggregation of 
 capital by corporate power increasing their means 
 for utilizing machinery in the production of wealth, 
 together with the continued immigration of the 
 labor element, while shutting out foreign manufac- 
 tures, have enabled the home manufactuers to con- 
 trol the labor element, and reduce it to absolute 
 dependence on the capitalists, who exercise entire 
 control over the manufacturing interests of the 
 country. 
 
 Duties are laid on the most common necessaries 
 of life, and since the great mass of consumers con- 
 stitute the laboring element, the greater burden 
 falls on them ; and since the tax thus levied is 
 added in marking the price, it goes to the manu- 
 facturer. The poor and miserable condition of 
 wage-laborers and their continued strikes for 
 higher wages corroborate the statement above 
 made. Thus it is seen that the tariff laws, however 
 just and needful in the early existence of our gov- 
 ernment, are means now to enrich capitalists at the 
 expense of the toilers of the land. 
 
 AND SUBSTITUTING 
 
 For such abrogated powers, by constitutional 
 and legislative provisions — 
 
 (1.) The election of all public officers directly 
 by the citizens.
 
 SYNOPSIS. 343 
 
 Since the relation is direct and the responsibility 
 of officers is due to the people, their selection and 
 appointment should be direct. 
 
 (2.) A system by which the choice of the 
 people can be expressed in the selection of can- 
 didates for office. 
 
 The convention system has serious and fatal de- 
 fects. Conventions are managed and manipulated by 
 party bosses and corporation tools in the interest of 
 their masters, and the people are compelled to ac- 
 cept what they consider a less evil to avoid a 
 greater. The selection of candidates is governed 
 by their disposition and means to serve the man- 
 agers and the party selecting them, couj^led with 
 their availability — that is, the power they have to 
 hoodwink the people and secure their votes. 
 
 (3.) A method- by which proportional repre- 
 sentation can be secured. 
 
 In a sovereign jurisdiction, in which but one 
 officer for the discharge of a prescribed duty is re- 
 quired, he is to be elected by a majority of the 
 votes cast in that jurisdiction ; but in the case of a 
 number for the performance of a common duty, as 
 boards of supervisors or a legislature, it is just to 
 provide for a method by which all parties can be 
 represented. To illustrate : a county has, say, 3,000 
 voters, of which 1,300 are Democrats, 1,100 Repub- 
 licans, and 600 Independents, Say there are five 
 supervisors to be elected. Dividing the 3,000 by 
 5 gives a quotient of 600. Let 600 elect a can- 
 didate, a little more or less. The Democrats would 
 see that by this rule they could elect but two, and 
 would concentrate their numerical strength on any
 
 344 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 two they might select. The Republicans would do 
 the same, and the Independents would unite on one 
 candidate. The result would be the election of 
 two in the nearly balanced parties, and one Inde- 
 pendent, and all would be proportionally repre- 
 sented. As no one should be deprived of his rights 
 because he is in the minority, he is entitled to repre- 
 sentation when no otiiers' rights are injured. 
 
 Of course, this method would necessitate the ob- 
 literation of all district lines w^ithin the jurisdiction, 
 and that would be proper, because the duties of the 
 office are the same in all. In state and national 
 offices these principles would apply. As the law 
 now is, in the case of the election of supervisors 
 above supposed, the 1,300 Democrats would elect 
 the whole live, and the 1,700 other voters would 
 have no representation. The disparity would in- 
 crease as the number of parties increased. 
 
 (4.) The free exercise of the elective of fran- 
 chise by all citizens, without regard to sex. 
 
 For the last thirty years, the subject of female 
 suffrage has been under discussion. The progress 
 made toward its consummation is cljeering and 
 gratifying ; and the day cannot be far distant when 
 sex will be no barrier to tlie exercise of a right 
 which will be doubled in value to all : not by dou- 
 bling its power by numbers, but by the quality of 
 virtue it will impart to the ballot. 
 
 Wrongs which shock the sensitive mind, pollute 
 the social circle, and force their way into the sa- 
 cred precincts of home, corrupt public morals, 
 impoverish, degrade, and debase mankind, and 
 sustained by the ballots of men, would be swept 
 out of existence, could the intelligent and virtuous 
 will of woman be enforced by her ballot. The
 
 SYxopsis. 345 
 
 moral atmosphere would be purified^ and with its 
 purification would disappear drunkenness, debauch- 
 ery, and a long list of crimes that disgrace manhood, 
 enfeeble the race, and threaten a relapse into bar- 
 barism. 
 
 Whenever woman's political power has been ex- 
 ened, a marked improvement has resulted, and the 
 nation only waits the full exercise of her natural 
 ri<fhts to realize the full fruition of the nation's 
 
 (5.) For local government in local affairs, and 
 for the exercise of sovereignty in the county, 
 state, and nation. 
 
 The people are sovereign by virtue of their nat- 
 ural rights, and the necessity of their full exercise 
 in the enjoyment uf "life, liberty, and the j^ursuit 
 of happiness." The exercise of sovereign powers 
 in the capacity of county government will not con- 
 flict with that of state; neither will the exercise of 
 state sovereignty conflict with that of national, 
 because the functions of each do not conflict with 
 any others. County government is organized for 
 certain specific purposes, and functions prescribed 
 for their performance cannot interfere with those 
 of the state. The state is organized with certain 
 prescribed functions; they cannot be performed by 
 a county or a nation. Likewise, a national govern- 
 ment is instituted for purposes that cannot be ac- 
 complished by a state government.- Hence we 
 liave distinct sovereignties, which are supreme in 
 their respective spheres. 
 
 (6.) For revenue, local, state, and national, 
 by direct tax on the property of the people. 
 15*
 
 846 SYNOPSIS!. 
 
 The abolition of the tariff ejstem would relieve 
 the people of a heavy burden, to say nothing of the 
 political corruption it engenders. Direct tax on 
 the j^roj^erty of the people would equaliz* the bur- 
 den of revenue. For national purposes, a tax of 
 one-half of one per cent, say on an assessment of 
 $30,000,000,000, would yield a revenue of $150,000,- 
 000; and this ought to defray the yearly expendi- 
 tures of the Federal Government. Indeed, with the 
 changes here advocated, one-fifth of it would suffice. 
 This could be assessed and collected along with 
 state and county taxes, and segregated as our state 
 tax is from the county tax, with only this addi- 
 tional labor and expense to the Federal Government. 
 The cost of collecting the customs duties amounts 
 to many millions annually. The justice, benefits, 
 and advantages of direct taxation are so great and 
 so apparent, that it requires no argument for their 
 suj^port. 
 
 (7.) For the recall and discharge from public 
 service any officer when a majority of his con- 
 stituents demand such recall and discharge ; and 
 a penalty attached to the offense for which he 
 was recalled and discharged. 
 
 This provision is just and reasonable. The ser- 
 vant agrees and undertakes to perform a certain 
 service. In the violation of his agreement he for-^ 
 feits his contract, and in addition, he is guilty of 
 treachery, which incurs a penalty. 
 
 By the existing system, instead of feeling the 
 obligation of duty to his constituents, he elevates 
 himself above them, and too often sells the powers 
 delegated to him for his own benefit. The liberty 
 to use his own discretion is turned into a license tc
 
 SYNOPSIS. Ml 
 
 mtrigne to further bis ambitious scbemes and pro- 
 mote tbe interests of bis party. Therefore, tbe 
 recall, discbarge, and punishment of this class of 
 offenders are just and necessary. 
 
 (8.) For the reduction of all salaries and 
 compensations for public services to the scale of 
 the natural ability of such person holding public 
 office to produce wealth by his labor. 
 
 The high salaries of office are among the most 
 prolific sources of corruption that disgrace our 
 political system. There is no reason why a person 
 should receive more compensation for serving the 
 people than for serving himself. His labor yiyo- 
 duces a certain value for whomever performed. 
 The strifes for high salaries engender and intensify 
 party spirit, which too often flames into passion ; 
 then reason flees, and the wily jaolitician succeeds 
 in his schemes of personal aggrandizement, or in 
 serving his master. 
 
 Those who now seek office for the pay that is in 
 it would give way to honest men who are actuated 
 by a desire to advance the interests of his fellow- 
 men, if no magnet in the shape of big salaries did 
 nor exist to attract him there. Such reduction 
 would tend to the purity of the ballot more than 
 any other one cause. 
 
 (9.) For the establishment of a system of 
 arbitration, by which all causes at issue and con- 
 troversies between ihdividuals shall be adjusted 
 in accordance with the promptings of natural jus- 
 tice and upon the particular merits of each 
 individual case ; the apprehension, trial, and dis-
 
 348 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 position of criminals ; and for the adjustment of 
 disjiutes and issues wherein a citizen is a party 
 and the county, state, or nation the contestant ; 
 a county with another county, a state, or the 
 nation ; or a state with another or the nation — are 
 respectively the parties in issue. 
 
 The abrogation of our existing judiciary system 
 necessitates the adoption of a method of adjudica- 
 tion that will secure justice to all parties. The ad- 
 vantages of a system as here indicated secure it 
 from the evils of our present judiciary. First, it 
 has for its aim justice, while the courts only aim 
 at the administration of law. Second, it tends to 
 peace and harmony among the people, while the 
 courts of law encourage dishonesty and crime in 
 creating or supj^ressing testiuiony when the case 
 urgently demands it. Third, it settles at once and 
 forever the matter in dispute on its own merits, 
 therefore requires no law save that of justice, no 
 interpretation of former decisions, because it rests 
 upon its own merits, while in courts of law the 
 temptation for quibbles and pretenses, dodges and 
 delays, is so strong that yielding to them is the 
 common custom. Fourth, it is simple, cheap, and 
 easy, while the courts of law are so intricate, com- 
 plicated, and difficult that a class of skilled experts 
 have to be employed who demand as their compen- 
 sation for their service such exorbitant fees that they 
 are enabled to live in wealth and luxury at the ex- 
 pense of their clients. Fifth, it would dispense with 
 a large and influential class of men whose interests 
 and aims are in perpetuating existing conditions, 
 by which swindling and robbery are carried on in 
 the name of and through the instrumentality of
 
 SYNOPSIS. 349 
 
 law. This class of men, skilled in the intricacies 
 and subtleties of an exclusive craft, are the conven- 
 ient and efficient agents of a government of organ- 
 ized greed, of which the wage-earner and wealth- 
 producer are the victims. In the name of the 
 public good and by its authority, they enact and 
 enforce laws for the benefit of the few, by which 
 robbery is legalized, powers belonging to the people 
 are usurped, and labor enslaved. All the legisla- 
 tion in the world, supported by the decision of 
 every court in existence, cannot make a wrong right. 
 
 (10.) For owning, controlling, and operating 
 all public highways and lines of communication 
 by water, as railroads, canals, navigable streams, 
 lakes and coasts ; and all means for the transmis- 
 sion of intelligence, as postal routes, telegraphs, 
 and telephones, by the government. 
 
 The rapid advancement of the railroad corpora- 
 tions, anid their consolidation into a system for 
 mutual advantage and defense, excites alike the 
 surprise and alarm of all who desire the welfare of 
 their country and humanity. A railroad is a per- 
 manent thing, and becomes a geograi^hical feature 
 of the country, and materially affects the value of 
 land by the faciilities it affords for the markets and 
 travel, like that of a navigable stream. Postal 
 routes, public schools, sanitary regulations, and 
 means for defense and administration of the law 
 are owned, controlled, supported, and operated by 
 government means. The adoption by the govern- 
 ment of all lines of travel, transporation, and intel- 
 ligence would comi^lete the category, and secure to 
 all the equal benefits derived from these enter-
 
 350 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 prises. The corporations that now control them, 
 and by which millions upon millions are unjustly 
 taken to enrich the corporators, would be changed 
 into a co-operative system in which all would be 
 equal beneficiaries; for, as has been stated, the 
 very purposes for which popular government is in- 
 stituted are the regulation of natural rights, and 
 the protection of the citizens in their full and free 
 exercise, and the security of all in equal opj^ortuni- 
 ties. 
 
 The absorption of wealth in the hands of a few 
 necessarily defeats the purposes of the people in 
 their attempts to establish free government; for 
 freedom depends on equality ; and equality cannot 
 exist when wealth is accumulated in few hands; 
 for upon it class distinctions are built up ; the few 
 become rulers, and the many their dupes and 
 slaves. 
 
 By controlling the lines for the transmission of 
 intelligence by private corporations, free and truth- 
 ful communication is prevented, and false state- 
 ments are published and true ones supj^ressed. In 
 this way, false notions and errors are propa- 
 gated, and reform seriously retarded. Public con- 
 trol of lines for intelligence would remove this 
 barrier to reform — a necessary condition in the work 
 of reconstruction. 
 
 (11.) For the occupation and use of the pub- 
 lic domain by the citizens of the government, 
 and the adoption of measures for the restoration 
 of all lands granted to corporations and obtained 
 by individuals now unoccupied and held for rent 
 or speculation, to the use and benefit of the peo- 
 ple.
 
 SYNOPSIS. 351 
 
 The necessity of this measure is apparent when 
 it is considfrecl that land is the source and support 
 of life ; and he who holds it holds and controls the 
 lives of those who are dependent uj^on it. Land 
 being a fixed quantity, its value increases as popu- 
 lation increases ; and as life is dependent on it, the 
 power of the holder over others increases with the 
 increase of its value. 
 
 The conditions upon which a greater portion of 
 the jiublic lands were granted have not been ful- 
 filled, and should revert to the public domain ; 
 the reversion has been hedged in by a resolution of 
 Congress to the effect that no grant, however 
 palpable the fact of the non-fulfillment of its con- 
 ditions by the grantee, it cannot revert to the gov- 
 ernment without a declai'ation of such non-fulfill- 
 ment by the joint action of Congress. Millions of 
 acres are thus withheld from occupancy and use in 
 which not a move has been made to perform the 
 conditions of the grant, and the time specified in 
 the chai'ter expired yeai's ago, in which the condi- 
 tions were to be fulfilled, and still awaiting the 
 action of Congress. 
 
 It has been the policy of the government until 
 recently to prohibit the right of aliens to hold land, 
 but of late, tlie title to millions of acres has been 
 granted to foreign lords and dukes, who will occu- 
 py them with English tenantry, and thus extend 
 English rule upon American soil. 
 
 (12.) For an efficient system of education, by 
 which all tlie people shall be duly and thoroughly 
 qualified for all their duties, public and private, 
 and for the exercise of all their rights and 
 privileges.
 
 352 SYNOPSIS. 
 
 The condition of a people is determined by the 
 status of their education, politically, socially, and 
 financially. The educational agencies that deter- 
 mine the status of a 2:)eople are far more numerous 
 and potent than those prescribed in the ordinary 
 school curriculum. By the scramble for wealth, 
 selfishness is developed, and selfishness is the great 
 drawback to individual advancement. The pursuit 
 of wealth, as the aim and object of life, is vitiating 
 and degrading ; the production of wealth as a 
 means of life is laudable and necessary : vitiating 
 because it develops selfishness ; degrading because 
 it engendei'S a lust for power and dominion which 
 characterize the tyrant, or contracts its unfortunate 
 owner to that of a miser. Besides, its successful 
 accumulation deprives others who need a portion 
 of it of its proj^er use. The accumulation of 
 wealth by unequal exchange is robbery ; in other 
 words, to take without giving an equal value by 
 fraud is swindling; by force, is robbery ; neither of 
 which would be possible if the people were j^roperly 
 educated. Tlie use of wealth now employed is to 
 accumulate more wealth, to exercise control over 
 others, and to serve as the basis of American aris- 
 tocracy. The true use of wealth, aside from ade- 
 quate subsistence, is in the development of all the 
 powers and faculties of the individual. It is the 
 culture and rounding out, the refinement and har- 
 monious relation, of all the attributes of the being 
 to the full capacity of each. 
 
 The intellect observes, conceives, reasons, ar- 
 ranges, and classifies knowledge ; the moral powers 
 deal in social relations based upon the require- 
 ments of justice and the regulation of domestic 
 affairs; the cesthetic relates to the beautiful in 
 nature and art — scenery, flowers, sculjDture, paint- 
 
 J
 
 STNOPSis. 353 
 
 ings, music. These elevate, purify, refine, and 
 l^olisli, and add greatly to the pleasures and enjoy- 
 ments of life. The spiritual has reference to the 
 interior life, and relation to the life after death. 
 All blend and unite in each properly educated and 
 cultured individual. Thus the purposes of life are 
 fully accomplished, and each passes on to his just 
 reward. 
 
 In view of the blessings arising from the exercise 
 of our natural rights in the enjoyment of j^ersonal 
 liberty in all the means of life, the free use of God's 
 gifts to man, and the inherent capacity of man for 
 unfoldment in his intellectual powers, whereby the 
 secrets of nature are unveiled and her forces 
 evolved and applied for his benefit, and for the ex- 
 ercise of his i^olitical rights in devising measures for 
 the advancement of industry, commerce, and edu- 
 cation, Ave deem it necessary, in order to realize 
 these blessings, to labor for their realization, fully 
 convinced that if we would be free, we must take 
 the work of reform in our own hands, and forever 
 relinqiiish the hope of refoi'mation from the politi- 
 cal forces now in existence. 
 
 We contemplate these things in the ideal with 
 the vague hope that sometime and in some way 
 they may be real. History and experience teach us 
 that blessings come to those who take them, who 
 provide for them by the means appointed by a wise 
 providence. They will never come to those who 
 wait for them. The poet sings of the noble, heroic 
 deeds of our forefathers; the orator in glowing 
 terms recounts their struggles, their suffering, and 
 their sacrifices ; we wave banners and fire cannon 
 in celebration of their deeds, but do nothing for 
 ourselves. They did their duty well : let us do 
 ours; for we have a duty to perform, not upon the
 
 ooi SYNOPSIS. 
 
 battle-field, nor in the council-chamber. The work 
 is in brains, illumination, and heart purification. 
 
 " We li-^e in deeds, not years. We should count 
 Time by heart-throbs, not by figures 
 On the dial-plate. He lives most 
 Who thinks most, feels the noblest, 
 Acts the best." 
 
 Their work was to break the bonds imposed by- 
 royal prerogative and '■' vested " rights : ours to 
 preserve the liberty thus gained ; they put the bal- 
 lot in our hands, and charged us with the power of 
 self-protection by its judicious use. Rejoicing in 
 the liberty thei/ won, we forget that it is in the 
 USE of the ballot, not its possession^ that our liber- 
 ties are to be preserved. They gave us the example, 
 the lesson : it is for us to profit by the one and 
 learn from the other. To enjoy the fruits of their 
 labor, we must labor likewise. We must think as 
 they did ; we must feel as they did ; we must 
 value our liberties as they did theirs : and then we 
 will do as they did. Tlie enemy they fought was 
 clothed with kingly authority; ours, in corporate 
 power : the one is vested by a long line of inheri- 
 tance, the other is a usurpation of natural rights ; 
 the one is essential to monarchical government, 
 the other destructive to a true republic.
 
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