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called "voting supplies" in the popular branch of a legislative body, only that it goes farther back, is fundamental, and begins at the beginning. It is well known, that, under a constitutional government, as in the United States and Great Britain, the executive arm can be crippled at any moment, and in that way controlled, by the refusal of supplies on the part of an independent legislative body, and that this power is commonly and justly regarded as one of the most efficient bulwarks of freedom. The powerful government of Great Britain is brought instantly to a stand, when the house of commons, the popular branch of the legislature, votes against it, and it can not go forward without a change of ministry, alias of the government, in conformity to the intimations of that vote. This power is based on the principle now under consideration, that is, the power of withholding those commercial values, commonly called supplies, which are necessary to the executive, and without which it can do nothing constitutionally. In this particular, the British government is more subject to the popular will, so far as the franchise extends, than that of the United States, and may be forced to reconstitute the administration, and change the public policy, at any time, in a single day; whereas, the government of the United States, or its administration, can not be changed but once in four years, however the people may be dissatisfied with the policy and measures adopted. In this particular, therefore, popular freedom has gained more, for its prompt and instantaneous influence, under the government of Great Britain, than under that of the United States; but this advantage suffers a large abatement in the comparative extent of the franchise in these two quarters, it being very limited in the former, and nearly or quite universal in the latter. Although freedom can not act in the United States, on the most comprehensive scale, but once in four years, for any change in public policy that may be desired; yet, on account of the extent of the franchise here, when it does act, it is capable of exerting a sweeping and powerful influence. Nevertheless, it would apparently have been better-certainly more favorable to freedom-if, in addition to the extended right of suffrage, the government of the United States had been so constituted, as not to allow an administration, once installed in the place of power, to govern the nation badly, if so disposed, for the full term of four years, in spite of the will of the people. Four years of power, in such a country, badly used, is enough to inflict upon it calamities which would require many years to remedypossibly such as could never be repaired. Take, for example, the

Mexican war.

Would it not have been well, if there had been a power in the people to arrest, or to have prevented it? Consider the amount of commercial values, the costs, that have been and must be wrested from them, before it will be paid for! As a free people, would they ever, with their eyes open, have voted such costs, and such public disasters? Kings make war, and the people pay the cost with their blood and treasure. If the people were consulted, there would be few, if any wars, except for defence of popular prerogatives. The war of the American revolution, as will be found upon examination, was waged solely for the vindication of commercial rights-the rights of every man in his own position, and in that way the rights of the community. In this great fact we have a most impressive verification of the doctrine maintained in this chapter.

The revolutionary struggle of our forefathers, was not for an impalpable phantom called liberty, which millions have chased, and few ever caught to hold except to their own disappointment. The wrongs which they complained of, under a tyrannical British sway, were a deprivation of commercial rights; what they contended for and ultimately gained, was the restoration and re-establishment of those rights. It was a palpable benefit-an instrument wherewithal to purchase and secure other benefits. It was that without which man can not have the desirable things of life. It was substantial wealth, of which they had been deprived by unjust legislation, and a despotic government. It was the sweat of the people's brow that was drawn away by taxes without representation, by expensive civil and military establishments maintained at the expense of the people to keep them in subjection. In this way they were deprived of their commercial rights, and kept poor, without a voice. It was to have, to hold, to control, and to enjoy their own, that our forefathers went through the revolutionary contest. This is FREEDOM; and nothing else is freedom. Life, liberty of opinion, of speech, and of the press, are the accidents of freedom-the results, though often, but erroneously, taken for freedom itself. It is only by the usurpation of the commercial values of a people, whereby a physical power over them, to hold them in bondage, is maintained, that life and its blessings can be put in jeopardy.

Besides these cursory views which go to the establishment of the proposition at the head of this chapter, a close scrutiny of every one's own experience will lead to the same result. Give a man the use, enjoyment, and control of that which he calls his own—all

Brute!

of which consists in commercial values, or that which such values only can secure to him-and he will ask for nothing more. He does not want any other freedom on earth, as a reasonable man. No man ever complained of oppression or of wrong from government, who had all this; certainly no insurrection was ever known in such a state of things. It would be morally impossible to disturb such a state of society, with a view to revolutionize it. This consideration alone might satisfy every reflecting mind, that this is freedom, when it is seen, that man can reasonably desire nothing more in the social state.

And it must be considered, that a man's commercial rights comprehend, not only what he may already have fairly acquired of this kind, but all his fair chances of future like acquisitions, by his own capital, labor, skill, or talents. Capital, labor, skill, and talent, not yet exerted or put to use, are as much commercial values as their products already in possession, and are equally in the market for sale or employment. It would be but a small part of freedom, for a government to allow a man the possession, use, and control of that which he has acquired, if it deprives him of that which he is capable of acquiring, or of his chances. It is, perhaps, the chances of the future which men prize most. Cut those off, bar them, and the most tender point of human expectations, of men's claimed rights, is assailed. Men, in the vigor of life, who are objects of fear to tyrants, and who alone can revolutionize a state, do not lean so much on the past, as they press forward to the future. Deprive such men of their chances, destroy their hopes, and they will feel it more than any other deprivation of which they could be made the subjects. Men will even forgive past injuries inflicted by a government, will at least forget them, if they can have security for their rights in the future. It is for the future chiefly that men love freedom, and will contend for it; and what they love and contend for, is commercial values, because, it is by these only that they can supply their wants, and gratify their desires. There is no earthly good, be it substance or privilege, which is not purchasable by these; and no privilege that is not surrounded and fortified by these. It is true, indeed, that religion and the grace of God are independent of such aids, and come down a munificence from on high, to console the poor and the afflicted to indemnify even the persecuted and the oppressed. But no thanks to man for this. This bounty of Heaven does not at all affect the claims of every man for his commercial values, as between him and his fellows,

and which, though also bounties of Heaven, constitute a basis of social rights between man and man, as spiritual benefits descending directly from Heaven can not, on account of their impalpable nature as subjects of humán regulation and control. These latter benefits are above the jurisdiction of society, and independent of it, except so far as the means of obtaining and enjoying them are concerned, which, as before shown, are also properly ranked among commercial rights.

It is for this reason that men will fight and die for their religion, that is, for the means of religion, which are necessarily of a commercial character. They do not fight and die for the grace of God, in the highest sense of the term; for man can not deprive them of that, and none have ever enjoyed it, in so large and rich a measure, as Christian martyrs. It was for social rights, alias for freedom, which always involves commercial rights, that the blood of martyrs has flowed so profusely. Persecuting and murderous tyrants have never been able to take anything from their victims, who have suffered for the faith of Christ, but their commercial values, of which life itself was one. At the same time that the martyrs were stripped of every earthly good, and were sacrificed at the stake, or on the rack, or in the flames, or by the ferocity of wild beasts, or by any other instruments of cruelty, not less various than the prolific ingenuity of fiendly malice could supply, they were infinitely more than indemnified by the presence and the grace of God, and the crown that awaited their emancipation. They suffered for what? For the cause, for social rights, for freedom, for commercial values, not only on their own account, but on that of their brethren, of the church, of society. As the patriot dies for his country, so the Christian martyr gives himself up for the Christian commonwealth, both of which sacrifices are made for the future good of the societies for which they shed their blood. If it be said, that the Christian martyr dies for his faith, because he will not renounce his Lord and Master, it is true. But this condition is imposed merely as a pretext for a deprivation of commercial rights. It was not for the mere love of cruelty and death, that Christian martyrs have been sacrificed; but it was for commercial benefits which their executioners hoped to obtain, directly or indirectly. Commercial values have always been at the foundation, and constituted the cause, of such murderous despotism. What immense confiscations of property, and how many other commercial advantages, have been gained by tyrants, in the persecution of Christians! It may be that this

1

Pecu

such were the aims, Other motives may

end has not always been obtained; but that there can be no more doubt, than of the fact. have been, were of course, assigned. There is nothing more hypocritical and false than injustice. The strength of despotism always lies in commercial values; and the object of tyrants is to fortify their power by an accumulation of such means. They do not practise injustice and oppression wantonly, though they may show malice, and display the most diabolical passions, in the execution of vengeance on those who stand in their path, or who refuse to yield to their claims. All the vices inherent in the nature of man, or of which he is susceptible by temptation, and all the worst passions that ever urged him on to crime, have not unlikely, have doubtless, mixed themselves up with these atrocities. There is a natural affinity between vice, and crime, and murder, in all the forms of each. They are all parts of the same character, constituting only different stages of progress in one career. But it is only by the acquisition and perverted use of commercial values, that depraved passions are gratified. These are the means of their sustenance, the elements on which they feed. The atrocities and inhumanities that were practised on Christians, in the early ages, under the pretext of purging society of bad members, would never have stained the pages of history, but for the commercial advantages that were expected from them, and too often realized. Even under the mistakes that were made, in this particular, as proved by the apologists of Christians to the Roman emperors, the very argument shows that the object of those persecutions was commercial benefit.

In the same manner, when the church herself became corrupt, and turned persecutor, her inquisition, her dungeons, her racks, her auto-de-fés — all her instruments for the punishment of heresy, involving the use of physical power-were for the defence and for the acquisition of commercial values, and by means of them. This was the power employed, and it was employed to strengthen and fortify itself, by depriving its victims of the possession and enjoyment of these rights. Like all false pretexts, the defence and propagation of the true faith was the alleged motive; the real aim was that power which is founded on commercial values. "Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," in one's own chosen way, are themselves commercial values and commercial rights. The church, as a persecutor, was not content with taking these, but the goods of heretics, before acquired, were first forfeited.

Despotism, in whatever form, when analyzed, will be found to

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