Democratic Sentinel, Volume 2, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1878 — THE RIGHT OF REVOLUTION. [ARTICLE]

THE RIGHT OF REVOLUTION.

When Solomon, the rich and proud monasch of the Hebrew commonwealth, was dead, his son Rehoboam came to the throne. The people at that time, and for years previous, had grown weary under the load of a burdensome and un j ust taxation. Immediately succee ding Solomon’s death the leading men of the nation, realizing the situation, sent to Egypt and rec died Jeroboam to administer the affairs of the Government. But, if possible, to avoid a revolution, the representatives of the people and Jeroboam came to Rehoboam, and petitioned for an abatement of taxes, because they had borne a heavy yoke, but the King haughtily sent them away, saying if they received hard usage from his father, they might expect rougher treatment from him. Then tentwelfths of the people revolted, founding a new nation, and the once-powerful Hebrew nation dwindled to two small tribes. Excessive and burdensome taxation under the Roman empire, while it did not result in immediate revolution, nevertheless, weakened the nation; reduced to abject poverty a large class of her enterprising citizens; ruined the agriculture of the Roman provinces, and the rulers were obliged to forgive debts, and remit 1 axes which the people were utterly incapable of paying. Every branch of commercial industry was affected by the severity of the law. The merchant, the banker, the manufacturer, the mechanic, and even the most obscure retailer of a sequestered village, were obliged to admit the officers of the revenue into the partnership of their gain, in order to avoid a confiscation of their property by the levy of exorbitant taxes, and the historian Zasimus laments that the approach of the tax levy was announced by the tears and terrors of the citizens, who were often compelled to embrace the most abhorred and unnatural methods of procuring the sum at which their property had been assessed. As a result of this system of excessive taxation, an exemption of taxes was granted in favor of 330,000 acres of uncultivated and unproductive land in the once fertile and happy province of Campagna, the sßene of the early victories, and delicious retirements of the citizens of Rome, now rendered a barren waste, and its once-happy owners utterly impoverished by excessive and overburdensome taxation.

W ho is not sufficiently acquainted with early American history to realize the fact that American free government and institutions were born of excessive taxation ; and, in the judgment of the fathers of our republic, the end sought justified the means, and, when British teas were thrown into Boston harbor all England was aroused, and English troops were sent, with all possible haste, to Boston to crush the mob. Gen. Washington became the leader of that mob, and when, under his leadership, the yeomanry of America vindicated the righteousness of their cause, who dares decry against that revolution.

Every individual possesses the inherent right to revolt against an oppressive government. Communities are but an aggregation of individuals, hence this inherent right to revolution on the part of communities ; and, in the eyes of the nations and according to and in harmony with international law, success on the part of those who i evolt against their government—ho we ver small their beginning may have been—entitles them to the recognition of the great powers of earth. The fundamental principles upon which our fathers founded this government were: Justice and equity toward all the people—no classes nor casts. Principle, rather than personal ambition, war the mainspring and prompting motive witn them, and all thought of private advancement or renown was merged in a spirit of community and social union; but how widely our Government has departed from this original idea of protection to her citizens, tho freedom and greatest degree of happiness toward all, we will now consider. The events of our sanguinary civil war are yet too fresh upon our memories to need a recital, but, as terrible and bloody as it was, its evils were in no measure to be compared with the events which followed. During the war numberless hosts of hitherto-impecunious men, bummer politicians, and parasites upon the community obtained license to barter and trade within the army lines, and not infrequently were the officers of our armies made partners in their nefarious schemes, and army raids made into the enemy’s country to capture cotton and other valuable property, and hundreds and thousands of our noble soldiers sacrificed in these abominable schemes of speculation. The result was, the war was needlessly prolonged, to enable this vast horde of parasites to fill their pockets with their ill-gotten gains. Immediately upon the close of the war, this shoddy aristocracy developed a style and extravagance in living hitherto unknown in this country, and, like epidemics in disease, it infected, to a large extent, the entire body politic. During the canvass for elections which immediately followed the closing of the war, these same persons in large numbers stood for office, and were returned to our State Legislatures and to Congress, and many came into the possession of offices of boih the National and State Governments, and the legislation which followed has only been in the interest of capital and against labor and the general industries of the country. While a large portion of the people have contended and maintained it to be the duty of Government to issue an increased amount of Government currency (greenbacks), and proclaim it the “money of the realm,” making it legal tender for all dues public and private, and with it to redeem all the outstanding indebtedness of the country, the Shylocks of London, Amsterdam and Wall street have thrown up their hands in holy horror, at the same time filling the palms of our Congressmen and officers high in the Government with glistening gold ; and, in consequence, the halls of Congress have reSjiinded with the eloquence of the representatives of the money power, which met a hearty response from the Presidents and their Cabinet officers, that such an act would be deemed a virtual repudiation, and was clearly unconstitutional. They have told us from tne stump and from the forum, yes, and their hired lackeys clad in clergymen’s‘vestments have proclaimed from the pulpit and in the lecture room, that the issuance of greenbacks—the nation’s money—was simply a war measure, a necessity at the time for carrying on the war, and, that being past, they shou.d now be retired and we should return to an exclusive hard-money currency. Right here let me propound one or two interrogatories and call upon the representatives of the Shylocks for answers :

1. If the issuing of greenbacks was simply a war measure, and not intended to remain as the permanent financial policy of the Government, was not the creating of our bonded indebtedness also a war measure and a necessity absolute to the carrying on of the war ? 2. If—the war being over—the occasion no longer exists for allowing the further issuance and circulation of the greenback currency, why does not the same argument equally apply to the bonded indebtedness of the country ? 3. If the Government has the right, and can, in justice to its own subjects, repudiate its currency obligations, upon which basis the real values throughout the country were established, and thus render bankrupt nineteen-twentieths of the enterprising business men of our country—as it has dope—has it not the right, and could it not with equal justice repudiate at least the interest on its bonded indebtedness? And can there be any justice in longer permitting such a vast amount of wealth to be held in this country entirely exempt from taxation ? No one will deny that the motive which prompted the Government to declare its bonds nontaxable was to induce capitalists to invest in them freely to aid the Government in carrying on the war. The war is long since over, and that emergency has passed—and, according to their own logic, this vast amount of wealth should now be compelled to pay its proportion of revenue the same as other money is taxed. A sewing woman or a day laborer who, by hard work and frugal living, have saved their few hundred dollars and deposited it for safe-keep-ing in a bank are compelled to pay exorbitant taxes to their respective governments, municipal, county, State, and national, while the rich nabobs, with millions of United States bonds in their safe-keeping, do not contribute 1 cent of revenue. Is this right? Is there any justice or equity in this? Surely none. We are told that the distressing hard times under which the country is groaning are the result of overproduction. There never was a greater fallacy; and we have too great faith in the average intelligence of Americans to believe that they will accept this theory. The only over-produc-tion there has ever been in this country has been the over-production of bankrupt debtors, and rendered so by the base and corrupt financial policy of the Government; and the capitalist looks quietly on, viewing the financial wrecks scattered all around him. and says: “My millions are invested in United States bonds. The Government

pays me a stated income, while I have no risks to run and am entirely exempt from taxation. Labor must pay the taxes, support the revenues. What care I for the people ? I will not exchange my bonds for money and run the risk of business ventures, and at the same time be compelled to contribute to the revenues of my country.” When we come to discuss this matter in all its detail and practical bearings and effects upon the middle and lower classes of our country, it fairly makes the blood curdle in our veins. And can the free American citizen longer submit to so gross injustice ? Is all this in harmony with the declaration of principles made by the founders of our Government ? Rather is it not the echoings of tyranny foreboding the establishment of our Government upon the basis of an aristocracy of wealth and the enslavement of the laboring classes? We now return to our first proposition—revolution. The end sought justifies the means necessarily employed. Having thus cursorily reviewed our national affairs, what is the duty of every free American voter ? It is not to immediately rise in auaed rebellion against the Government, and if possible overthrow it, for history teaches us that a majority of such revolutions bring to the surface men of great executive ability, but devoid of moral sense ; and frequently the remedy is worse than the disease. But it is the duty of every free American citizen to seize hold of and maintain all those rights guaranteed to him under the constitution of our common country, and before a resort to arms exhaust all constitutional means for correcting the existing evils which are resting so heavily upon us and crushing out the life blood of our nation. The self-interest of every retail merchant, manufacturer, mechanic, professional man, all middlemen and day laborers throughout this land, calls upon him and appeal to his better judgment in this behalf. And our duty to our fellow-men, which is a higher and holier motive, should prompt us to band together as the heart of one man, and under the constitution, and agreeably with its letter and spirit, immediately correct the errors we have considered. Failing in this attempt, then, rather than submit supinely to the enthrallment of a worse than African slavery, it would be the bounden duty of labor to array itself against capital and appeal to the arbitrament of the sword and the God of Justice for vindication. It is a mistake to assume that any specific form of government must necessarily last forever ; the institution is indicative of a certain stage of civilization, and for the time being is adapted to a particular phase of human development, and when the great mass of the people have developed to a plane beyond that recognized by the Government it is no longer essential to the well-being of the people. All tyranny springs out of a bad state of government ; thus, as civilization advances, governments as such decay. In a government desirous of keeping pace with the progress of civilization all legislation should be with the view of the greatest happiness to the greatest number; and any government which encourages legislation short of this is sure to lose its hold upon the people, and American legislators have got to learn that nothing but evil will result from unequal class-legislation. So soon as a republican or democratic government, through its legislative acts, passes laws which are inimical to the wants and absolute needs of the great majority of its citizens, so surely does it sound its own death-knell. Our legislators must be taught to obey the law of equal freedom. If a government forcibly takes the money of one of its citizens for its support and voluntarily releases another of its citizens from any obligation to contribute to the revenue, it becomes thereby class legislation, and is inimical to the welfare of its citizens, and is no longer entitled to the support of that large class who are compelled to support its revenues; and, on the other hand, that ciass who do not contribute to the revenues of the government in equity are not in the least entitled to its protection; and, by releasing one subject from the payment of taxes and compelling another subject to contribute, it is guilty of infringing on the rights it ought to maintain, and the government becomes an aggressor instead of a protector. And in the matter of currency laws all governments are at fault. Laws interfering with the currency regulations, either forbidding the issue, or to enforce the receipt of certain notes or coin in return for other commodities, infringe on the right to exchange. It prevents trades which would otherwise have been made, or compels exchanges which would not have been made, and therefore violates the law of equal freedom. The matter of currency, or monetary arrangements, of any community, is dependent upon the morality of the people. If the great m iss of the people are morally corrupt, dishonest, nothing’ but coin can circulate as currency, and all business transactions will be confined strictly to this basis, and an exchange of metal with each business transaction. And whenever a government, or its legislature, adheres persistently to an exclusive metallic currency, it is because the law-makers and government officers have become so thoroughly cor- ’ rupt at heart as to measure the moral sense of the entire people by their own standard. On the other hand, so long as the law-making and administrative powers of the government are conscious of being exercised and influenced by a high degree of moral sense, so long are notes and promises to pay the principal currency cf the country. In fact, “ a want of confidence,” as we often hear it expressed in hard times, simply means a corrupt government and coin money. On the other hand, good times are the result of a government whose laws are enacted and administered by representatives of the people who discard selfish ends and aims, and in all their acts only consult the principle of the greatest good to tne greatest number. At no period in the history of our Government have our free democratic institutions been in so great peril as at the present time. During these five long and wearisome years of distressingly hard times our Government has persistently pursued a course terribly fatal to all the business industries of the country—the effect of which has been to render bankrupt almost the entire business population, rendering them unable to give employment to our mechanics and laborers, and, to-day, millions of so-called tramps are perambulating the codntry in search of labor to procure food. And yet the Government totally ignores this lamentable condition of our affairs, and the money kings say: not until confidence is restored will we invest in business enterprises that will give the people employment, and those high in government are still harping upon the evidences of better times. Is it any indication of prosperity, either present or prospective, when we see a jnan and his family of eight or ten sons all out of employment and lounging about their home ? Precisely is this the condition of our country, with almost the entire business portion of its population financially ruined, and nine-tenths of our laboring population without visible means of support for themselves and families. It is high time that the American people;of all classes should look these facts square in; the face. And I warn the moneyed aristocracy of America that, if they do not heed the admonitions in time, and lend their influence to correct the legislation of the country, and make it conform more to the interests of the masses, the threatening storm will burst upon them with all its fury, in which event they can blame none but themselves ; let them remember that the law of compensation holds good throughout all the realms of nature, for, as a man soweth, so shall he also reap. Let our legislators and men in high authority and the moneyed power which at present controls them all remember that by trespassing upon the claims of others men hurt themselves also ; the reaction comes sooner or later, it is sure to follow. It is a trite remark that revolutions never go backward ; with each revolution the law of development has something to do. The result of our civil war was the evolving of a higher degree of civilization in America, for, whatever others may think to the contrary, the great underlying motive which prompted the immense sacrifice of treasure and life of the people of the Northern States during “the war” was the emancipation of the African slave and his elevation to citizenship, and the result was in favor of the greatest happiness to the greatest number. The proud republic of Rome suffered on account of class legislation and its oppression of the poor, and, in the years 253, 294 and 336 of the Christian era, partial insurrections announced the condition of a class bound up with all the wants of ordinary life, but disinherited of all the advantages of citizens of the republic. The result was finally that the Senate was obliged to support them by sending as far as Sicily for wheat, to deliver to them either gratis or at a mere nominal price. From the year 387 to the year 412, during a period of twenty-five years, the republic of Rome passed through the same troubles we are experiencing to-day, which culminated with the entire abolition of debts, and the prohibition to exact any interest. All governments, whatever be their form, contain within themselves germs of life which make their strength, and germs of dissolution which must some day lead to their

rum; and, so long as the law-miking power preserves its virtues and its patriotism, the elements of prosperity predominate, but so soon a s it begins to degenerate, *hen the causes of disturbance get the upper hand and shake the edifice. In view of these facts, and to avert existing evils, and those still worse that are prospective, it is the bounden duty of Americans—regardless of old party lines—to make common cause in effecting at the polls—armed with the free ballot—an immediate, thorough and effective revolution of our Government; and let us do it, before it be for ever too late ; elect men to our State Legislatures and to Congress who will represent the people, and, as servants of the people, enact laws for the equal protection of all; elect men who will restore to the country that species of money that was once good enough .to pay our soldiers for fighting to preserve the nation intact elect men who will obey the behests of the people, and at once repeal all acts of class legislation, and compel the rich as well as the poor to contribute to the revenues of our Government; then we shall find- “confidence restored,” all the industries of our country will revive, willing hands will find plenty of labor and at remunerative wages, and the wants of those millions who are«now anxiously inquiring what shall we do for bread will be mi t; avenues of trade will be opened to the enterprising business men of the country whose efforts at present are paralyzed, and our country once more will start out upon the high-

way of prosperity.

C. HOLLAND.