Speech Against the Con Script Act by Thomas E. Watson (1917)

r^

SPEECH

AGAINST THE CON-
SCRIPT ACT

DELIVERED BY

THOS. E. WATSON

AT

THOMSON, GA.

JUNE 23, 1917

REPRINTED FROM

WATSON'S MAGAZINE

Jeffersonian Publishing Co.
Thomson, Ga.

—

:

Speech Delivered by TRos. iE.gWatson, at
Mass Meeting iat TEomson, Ga.,
June 23, 1917

FELLOW-CITIZENS there are more years behind you, than

As perhaps most of you know, I there are before you.
have had less to do in the calling to-
Personally, I haA'e perhaps less in-
gether of this assemblage, than with "
any other meeting here in Thomson, terest in the recent acts of the govern-

that I ever addressed. ment, than almost any citizen, for I am

Neither in The Jetfersotiian, nor in too old for military service, have no

any other paper, within my knowledge, son who comes within the act of con-

—has my name been mentioned and no scription, and my only grandchildren

one has been authorized to state that are little girls. Therefore, long before
I would appear here, as one of the the most of the consequences which I

speakers. fear, from this new Congressional legis-

The extent of my personal connec- lation, can come upon the country, my

tion with it, was the assurance given dust will have mingled with that of

by me to a committee of my Dearing my ancesors, who, like yours, fought

friends, that, if the people saw fit to and suffered and bled, to establish
those liberties that are now endangered.
hold such a meeting, I, as a citizen,
All over this country roundabout
a taxpayer, and a lover of my country, on hill and plain, and valley, those
would be present, and give my views
—heroic forefathers of ours marched
on the subject which so profoundly agi-
hungry, tattered, barefooted leaving
tates the public mind.
bloody footprints to tell which way
In the years gone by, we have held
many a mass-meeting in this Court- they marched, on their route to the
Eoom.
battlefields where they won the glori-
Nearly thirty years ago, we started,
in this room, the great fight on the ous right of independent self-govern-
ment.
—Jute Bagging Trust a fight which
Are we a lot of degenerates ?
spread from this coun-ty, to other coun- Have we lost the spirit of robust
ties throughout the State—and from manhood ?
Are we such cowards that we dare
this Stte to other States, until all not re-assert our historic rights, and
demand that the government respect
Dixieland was in revolt against an op- them ?
pressive combination, which was re- All over this country you hear peo-

morselessly victimizing the cotton- ple say they are afraid to speak out
against what Congress has done.
growers of the South ; and as you well
remember, the movement which we They are afraid to sign a petition
started, here in this Court House,
finally brought that insolent Trust to for the redress of grievances.

its knees. In some cases, those who have signed,
become frightened, and they send word
That was nearly thirty years ago: to have their names taken otf.

many of those who are here today, They are afraid they will be arrest-
were not here then ; and many of those
who were here then, are not here today, ed; they're afraid they'll be put in jail.

nor will they ever meet with us again, They are intimidated by the word

in this world. On the streets, in the newspaper of-
Man}" of you, like myself, have lived
fices, and on the highways, there's a
—out the greater part of your lives

589154

!: !

new crop of lawyers, suddenly born acts of hostility against the govern-
into the world, who are experts in con-
ment ?
stitutional law. Have you taken your Winchester

They went to sleep last night with ririe and fired upon the State of
their heads pillowed on the Code, and Georgia ?
they woke lip this morning with their
Have you gathered up your six-
brains saturated with the principles of shooter or shotgun, and gone on the

jurisprudence war-path against the State of Tennes-

These spring-branch lawyers, swarm- see?
ing throughout the land, tell you, that
if you criticise Congress, it's "Trea- If so, you are guilty of treason.
son!" Have you, since the second day of
April, 1917, openly aided and abetted
If 3"ou abuse the President, it's the German Kaiser, by giving him a
"Treason!" battleship or a submarine, or a cargo
of ammunition?
—If you condemn the recent course of
If so, 3^ou are guilty of treason
the government it's "Treason!"
The next time one of these wet-
Before I go any further, let me tell
weather branch limbs of the law,
3^ou, once for all, that the Constitution threatens you with arrest and impris-
onment for treason, j^ou shake your
of the United States said the last word
on treason, and this supreme law of finger in his face and tell him you
the Republic, exclusively defines what know what your legal rights are, and
treason is, and ever shall be, so long as that you defy any man, official or
otherwise, to harm a hair of your head,
that Supreme Law remains unamend- until a grand jury of your county has
indicted you, and a petit jury has re-
ed by three-fourths of the States.
Our forefathers did not intend that turned a verdict of "guilty."
In every city and town the corpora-
the barbaric treason laws of England
should ever become the excuse for ju- tion has its local ordinances, and in
dicial murder, in this free Eepublic. every one of these there is an India-
rubber provision against disorderly
They did not intend that any man conduct. Under the administration of
an arbitrary mayor, council or police
should be put to death for anything he court, it is possible for almost any un-
said, or anything he wrote. usual conduct to be punished as "dis-

They meant to bury, forever, the —orderly."
But no citizen of this Republic can
constructive treason of the British stat- be tried, for any alleged crime against
the State, or the Federal government,
utes, and therefore they not only de- unless the gi'and jury indicts, and the

fined treason in the Constitution, but petit jury convicts.

they used the word "only," which in Whenever you are threatened with
that connection, weighs a ton.
a prosecution for treason or sedition,
Congress has no authority to abolish or any other of these offenses that are
that word "only." being hinted about, answer back: "I

Congress has no authority to modify demand indictment by the grand jury,

that definition of treason. and am ready to give bond for my ap-

No act of the President, no act of pearance to stand trial, if indicted."

the two Houses, no decision of the Su- That demand stops everything until
preme Court, no legislative action of the grand inquest, composed of vour
any State, can enlarge or diminish, the fellow-citizens, in your own county or

constitutional definition of treason. Federal district, have formulated legal

Let me read it to you charges against you.

"Treason against the United States Of course, if you couldn't give the
shall consist only in leA'^nng war
against them, or adhering to their en- bond, you would have to lie in jail,
emies [in time of war], giving them aid awaiting the action of the grand jury.

and comfort. No person shall be con- Southern

victed of treason, unless on the testi- P,.,^phlets
mon}^ of two witnesses to the same
overt act, or confession in open court." Rare Book CollGcf.i„«

Have you been waging war by open

Is it such a very terrible thing to lie Never before were our people so widely
and deeply agitated.
in jail?
Never before were a people confront-
Does the thought of such a thing ed with such a complexity of troubles,
turn your backbone into water? so unexpectedly.

Does your manly courage ooze out, Just a year ago your Representative
at the very thought of having to go
in Congress was facing you, as I am do-
to jail?
ing now, and begging for your votes.
Better men than you and I have gone
Not one whisper came from him, to
to jail, and lain there year in and year put you on notice, that when you voted
out, rather than budge an inch, before for him in November, he would vir-
the aggressions of tyranny, or surren- tually forfeit the liberty and the life
der one iota of conscientious convic- of your boy, before another twelve-
tions and rights. month would roll around.

John Bunyan was jflung into jail, and Let us be fair to everybody, and let
he lay there seven years, when he could us assume that the candidate himself
have walked out any day, a free man, did not dream, that when he received
if he had bent the knee to legalized op- the benefit of your support, last No-
vember, he would break your heart,
pression. with HIS vote, in Congress, the next

Roger Williams braved the terrors of spring.
the wilderness, and made himself a
rude home among the savages, rather Just a year ago, candidates for the
than abate one jot or tittle of conscien- United States Senate were abroad in
the land, asking for an endorsement of
tious conviction. their stewardship, and a renewal of

John Wesley was hounded, and per- their commission.
secuted, and ostracised in his heroic
battle for what he believed to be right. Not the slightest hint fell from any
of these candidates, to put you on no-
Jefferson Davis was arrested, put in tice, that if you returned them to the
highest law-making body on this earth,
prison, and shackled like a common they would, in less than six months,
so violate your highest law, and tram-
criminal. ple upon your guaranteed constitu-
tional rights, as to darken your home
Alexander H. Stephens was arrested forevermore, and bring down the head
and put in prison. of your wife, under the crushing load
of maternal grief.
Daniel O'Connell, the Irish orator,
statesman and liberator, was flung into Let us be fair to those Senators, and
take it for granted that they them-
prison. selves, at that time, had no idea of the
enormity that they would commit, by
The immortal heroes of the long, voting for conscription so soon after

hard struggle for the establishment of re-election.
those very liberties which your govern-
ment is lessening by arbitrary Acts of This time last year the President of
Congress, were flung into dungeons, the United States was facing great as-
and were led forth from those dun- semblages of the people throughout the
geons, to the fatal block, where the ex- country, and was fervently pleading for
ecutioner of a tyrannical law struck off peace against such fire-eaters and war-
their heads with the axe, champions as Theodore Roosevelt,

Algernon Sidney and William Rus- Henry Cabot Lodge, and Charles E.
Hughes.
—sell are names whose lustre time
Those fervent appeals of the Presi-
will never dim ^and when we, dent called forth the passionate appro-
who inherited the liberties for val of the vast majority, and the wives
which they died, shall have ceased to and mothers and sisters especially, took
prize them sufficiently to run some risk

in maintaining them, our great Anglo-
Saxon race will have become basely de-

generate, and we will have proved our-
selves unworthy of our birthright.

Let us consider for a moment, the
situation in which we find ourselves.

!"

up the slogan, and made the Republic The human race has never been free
ring with it : "He kept us out of war !
from inequalities and injustice.
—That was November, 1916 where
From the very dawn of time, some
then was the Lusitania ?
have been prosperous and some unfor-
It la.y at the bottom of the deep blue
—tunate; some rich, and some poor but
sea, where it had lain since Mav 5,
never, in all the lapse of the ages,
1915. have there been such stupendous in-

Where were the hundred and nine- equalities and injustices as now exist
teen American travellers, Elbert Hub- between classes and masses in this Re-
bard and his wife, young Vanderbilt,
and the other husbands and wives, that public.
went down with the ship? And the
Never before were such prodigious
little children, clinging in terror to the burdens of taxation laid upon the peo-
ple, to be paid, not mainly by the rich,
skirts of their mothers' dresses? but mainly by the poor.

Their bones were bleaching on the Bonded debts, to run for thirty years,
lonely seashore of the Irish coast, in sums so immense they stagger the
where the unfeeling waves had washed human mind : one bill, for military ex-
them, nearly two years before
penditures, reaching the almost incred-
What about the dynamite outrages?
They were all in the past, dating long ible sum of three thousand millions of
dollars, and the President, in addition
before the November election.
The principal criminals who had to that, insisting on another appropria-
tion of six hundred and twenty-five
perpetrated those dastardly crimes
millions of dollars, for airships.
against our munition plants and our
workmen, had been permitted to go In Washington City it is a carnival
back to Germany, to receive the re- of wild extravagance : an orgy of prod-
wards of the Kaiser ; and they had re- igal waste: a Bacchanalian revel of
turned, with garments that reeked with men who act as though they were drunk
innocent American blood, on safe con- on power ,and had lost every sense of
ducts granted by the British govern- shame, duty, and responsibility.
ment reluctantly, out of respect for the
personal and official request of Presi- The expenses of the war have been
so adjusted by the Senate Finance
dent Woodrow Wilson. Committee, that they fall chiefly upon

Where were the Belgian atrocities? the masses.
and the barbarisms inflicted by Ger-
many upon Northern France? The huge appropriations made will

They all lay in the past, the very accrue to the benefit of the classes.

mworst of them having been committed Great is the gathering of the vul-
August and September, 1914. tures at the National Capital, for never
But let us be fair to President Wil- before has there been such a carcass
son also, and let us assume that when inviting them to the feast.
he accepted another term in the high-
Three thousand millions of dollars in
est office on earth, he did not then one appropriation! and the vultures
fiercely shrieking for more.
realize that in one short month, after
he renewed his official oath, he would The necessaries of life put further
be plunging his country into the blood- and further away from the reach of
the common people, by the lawless and
iest abyss that ever opened to swallow
insatiable combinations of Capital.
the human race, and that every cause
of war that he now assigns as a justi- The food gambler committing crimes

fication for his complete reversal of here in free AmxCrica, almost equal to
position, antedates the day he was re-
those inflicted bj' enraged victors upon
elected, because he "kept us out of conquered territories in Europe.
war."
The necessaries of life, incredible to
Never before were general conditions
tell, higher in New York, Chicago,
so appalling.
Boston, Atlanta, St. Louis and Balti-
more, than they are in London and
Paris and Brussels.

6

—

!

It is absurd to say we are menaced different localities, in accordance with
by German danger.
the statutes, providing for just such
German}^ cannot send troops here in
contingencies.
submarines.
In the whole history of the world,
Germany has no fleet on sea : Eng- no government ever demanded such
land has: we have. In what way does powers as this administration insists

she endanger us ? upon.

The Law of Nations and our own England was in the war with four
common sense, tell us that what Eng- million volunteers, and for three years,
before conscription was adopted by
land, France, and 'Germany do to each
other, is none of our business. the British Parliament, as the last re-

It is not cause for us to send a sort to cope with Roman Catholic trea-

million of our boj^s, to sacrifice their son in Ireland and Canada.
lives, so far from home.
No food dictator was thought of in
Ten millions of our young men sud-
denlj^ made the helpless subjects of a Germany, until the second year of the
new duty to the government, never
war.
heard of in any discussion before the Australia gave her people a vote on
people, and never heard of before in
conscription, and the Canadian gov-
the history of the human race, outside ernment is even now refusing to resort
to it, unless the people approve it, at
of Prussianized Europe.
the polls.
Ten million free American citizens
suddenly and peremptorily ordered to But in this country, before we are
quit their vocations and to attend a actually in any war; when nothing but

newly-constituted tribune, to be regis- the remotest dangers can be conjured

tered like a lot of dumb cattle. To be up ; when no enemy is marching
against us ; when our fleet and the Eng-
chatechised by an inquisitorial process
lish fleet are in such absolute control
recently invented.
of the oceans, that not a smgle German
To be compelled, virtuall}^ to strip
vessel, capable of bearing troops, dares
their persons naked to the eye of the
Federal inquisitor, and threatened with to show itself out of its own harbor
we are saddled with conscription; we
a sentence of a year in jail, if they
hesitate to perform this new, unheard are threatened with a food dictator-
of duty, and to submit their persons
to that naturally repugnant inquisi- ship; we are menaced with a national
price-fixer, and we are not yet secure
torial examination. from the President's strenuous efforts
to compel Congress to give him the
Is it any wonder that the country is right to gag the newspapers.

in a state of consternation? Think of it

Is it any wonder that j^oung men Who could have dreamed it, last No-
are terrified, and that fathers and
vember ?
mothers are distracted, half-crazed by
natural fears, anxieties and grief? When I recall how President Wilson

The jails are being filled, officers are has clamorously contended for the

scouring the country, searching for right to enslave the press, in utter vio-
lation of one of the plainest provisions
those who did not promptly respond to
the new law. of our supreme law, it seems to me I

Editors are menaced with Federal can hear, as well as see, in the mind's
prosecutions, for daring to speak their eye, the brilliant and fearless Irish ora-
minds; the new doctrine is being held
tor, Eichard Brinsley Sheridan, when
that the Constitution is suspended dur- 4ie stood forward in the British Parlia-
ment to denounce the royal ministers
ing the time of war, when everybody who, during the regency of the Prince
ought to know that the Constitution is of Wales, were attempting to shackle
not suspended, and cannot be, and that
martial law does not extend beyond the the press.
actual soldiers and the actual army,
unless martial law be proclaimed in the With eyes that blazed with indig-
nant fires, and in tones that rang like

the clarion's call, he thrilled that au-

gust assembly as few orators have ever contention on the part of our fore-
fathers, that they inherited the liber-
done. ties of the Mother Country.

Cried he: "Give them a corrupt Let us read once more the first of the
House of Lords; give them a venal Resolutions which Patrick Henry of-
House of Commons; give them a fered in the Virginia House of Bur-
tyrannical Prince; give them a truck- gesses, in May, 1765.
ling court ; and give to me but an unfet-
tered press, I will defy them to en- It reads as follows:

croach one inch upon the liberties of "Resolved, that the first adventurers
England!" and settlers of this. His Majesty's Col-

Great God ! How hard it is to real- ony and Dominion, brought with them
and transmitted to their posterity . . .
ize that in one crisis of the long fight all the privileges, franchises, and
immunities that have, at any time, been
President Wilson waged against the held, enjoyed and possessed by the peo-
freedom of the press, a difference of ple of Great Britain."
less than half a dozen votes would
have effected that high-handed outrage Of course, the immediate result of
upon the Constitution of the Unitod
States, and destroyed one of the most —Mr. Henry's assertion was to make good
precious heirlooms of American lib-
the position against the Stamp Act to
erty. wit: that it was the right of an Eng-

Upon the pretext of waging war lishman not to be taxed, without rep-
resentation. But the Resolution itself
against Prussianism in Europe, the states the broad truth, which was aft-
purpose of Prussianizing this country
has been avowed in Congress, with bru- erward embodied in many a superb de-
tal frankness, by a spokesman of the
Administration. cision of our highest courts, namely,
that our forefathers brought with them
On the pretext of sending armies from England, the native, original lib-
erties of Englishmen, and those liber-
to Euroj)e, to crush militarism there,
ties cannot be taken from him or his
we first enthrone it here.
descendants, without their consent.
On the pretext of carrying to all the
nations of the world the liberties won Among the papers of Patrick Henry,

by the heroic life-blood of our fore- found after his death, was one in which
fathers, we first deprive our own people he stated that he wrote his Resolutions
on the blank leaf of an old law book,
of liberties they inherited as a birth- without consulting with any one, and
without the aid of any one.
right.
He said in that solemn paper,
On the pretext of unchaining the en-
which he evidently meant as a dying
slaved peoples of other lands, we first
chain our own people with preposter- statement, that his Resolutions pro-
ous and unprecedented measures, know-
voked violent debates, and that many
ing full well that usurpations of power,
once submitted to, will never hereafter threats were uttered against him, and
be voluntarily restored to the people.
that much abuse was cast upon him by
Let us examine these new acts of
Congress, and endeavor to ascertain those wlio favored submission to the
whether they violate the Constitution British Parliament.
of the United States and the time-hon-
ored principles of Anglo-Saxon lib- His Resolution passed by a very
erty: if they do, we should be able to
demonstrate that fact, and if we can —small majority perhaps of one or two

succeed with such a demonstration, our only, but he had taken the legal posi-
representatives in Congress should be tion which was as impregnable as the
willing to repeal the offending statutes. Rock of Gibraltar, and the contagion of
Virginia's example spread to other
First of all, I beg to remind you that States, bringing on the Revolutionary
War, the Independence of the new
the Revolutionary War began with the Colonies, and thus our Constitution of
1787, which was meant to perpetuate
those free English principles, on which

8

Patrick Henry spoke with such tor- ferson : to the type which in later days
gave us such tribunes as Alex. H.
rents of sublime eloquence. Stephens, Benj. H. Hill, and Robert
(See Tyler's Patrick Henry, p. 62. Toombs.

Also pp. 75 and 76.) Let us go back to first principles : let
As every lawyer who has really stud-
us take down from the shelves those
ied the principles of English law is standard old law books which we bent
over at midnight when we were stu-
well aware, the Great Charter of the dents of the law, many and many long
year 1215, was nothing moi"e than a re-
affirmance by the Barons, and a re- years ago.

acknowledgement by the Norman King, Is it not time that we should be ex-
amining the foundations of our system
of the ancient and original liberties of of government?

our race. Is it not time that we were endeavor-
ing to re-mark, re-establish and firmly
The germs of those principles, as of define the boundary lines of our blood-

all our free institutions, existed in Ger- bought liberties?
many, before the great Teutonic tribes
Oh, my countrymen ! You who are
—separated some going to France, some
today living in a home that came down
to Britain, some to lands beyond the to you from your fathers: "you who

seas. • have been in peaceable possession all

The peculiar, original and native your life, succeeding a father who him-
rights of Englishmen were preserved self had lived in peaceable possession
and handed down in what was called
the unwritten law, the common law of —your home is sacred to you, by the

England. Two of those principles are memories of your whole existence: by
dear associations, and by the graves
as clear as the unclouded sun, and as of your ancestors who went to their
old as organized European society. long sleep, believing that the sacred
old spot would never be desecrated by
One is, that no citizen can be sent
the feet of the violent, lawless tres-
out of the country unless he consents
passer.
to it.
Suppose you should suddenly awake
Another is, that no citizen can be de- to the fact that the trespasser has come
upon your inherited and sanctified
prived of his property, of his liberty,
—premises, and was threatening to put
of his life, without due process of law.
you out by force of arms how much
Will any member of the legal pro- time would you lose in getting ready

fession challenge this statement? for self-protection?

From the shysters and the petty How much time would you lose in

place-men of the hour, arrogant in the hunting up your old title deeds, and
making yourself doubly sure of your
joy of a little brief authority, I appeal rights and your land-lines?

to that nobler type of lawyer, who has Nationally speaking, the trespasser is
never failed to make himself at every on your reservation.

crisis, the champion of the people, the The lawless intruder threatens to
drive you out.
unquailing, unpurchas.able, unterrified
Let us lose no time in making the
advocate of those grand old principles
voice of the people heard. Let us
—of English law and liberty to this hasten, without the loss of a day, to
examine our muniments of title.
type of lawyer throughout the Union
I cannot believe that popular sov-
I confidently appeal: the type of law-
ereignty is dead.
yer which put the name of Samuel
Romilly and Edward Coke, and Henry I will not believe that courage is ex-
Grattan, John Philpot Curran, Daniel
O'Connell, Henry Brougham, Thos. tinct in the people.
Erskine and Hugo Grotius at the very
Until invincible facts convince me
—forefront of human achievement and
otherwise, I will believe that you will
glory I make my appeal to that type

of lawyer which emblazoned the record
of our profession with the names of
James Otis, Dabney Carr, Patrick

Henry, Luther Martin, Edmund Ran-

dolph, George Wyth^, and Thos. Jef-

show yourselves men enough to stand judged, and wrongs redressed, in great
for your rights, and to preserve those
part to this day.
liberties which your forefathers were
brave enough to win. Therefore, no lawyer can deny that
the great principles of the English
Is the English common law a part
Common Law are ours now, just as
of the law of the United States?
they have been the heritage of our great
Turn to that masterly and accepted unconquerable race ever since it mi-
standard, Cooley's Constitutional Lim- grated from the forests of Germany.
itations. In Chapter III., the learned
To the same effect. Chancellor Kent,
author first mentions the Constitution
of the United States, and the Consti- in his commentaries, states in his twen-
tutions of the verious States, and then
adds "But, besides this fundamental ty-first lecture, that the Common Law
law, every State has also a body of
is the apiDlication of the dictates of
laws, prescribing the rights, duties and
natural justice, and of cultivated rea-
obligations of persons Avithin its juris-
son to particular cases.
diction, etc."
He quotes the language of Sir Mat-
"By far the larger and more valu- thew Hale, who says that the Common
Law is not the product of the wisdom
able portion of that body of laws con-
of some one man, or society of men,
sisted of the Common Law of England, or any one age; but of the wisdom,
counsel, experience and observation of
which had been transplanted in the
American wilderness, etc." many ages of wise and observing men.
Chancellor Kent repeats the accepted
Judge Cooley then proceeds to de-
doctrine, that the English Colonists
scribe the Common Law of Engla-nd,
brought with them to this country those
and he says : "It was the peculiar ex-
Common Law principles .which pecu-
cellence of the Common Law of Eng-
liarly concern themselves with the pro-
land that it recognized the worth and
sought especially to protect the rights tection of the individual citizen in his
and privileges of the individual man.
personal liberties and rights.
Its maxim did not recognize arbitrary
power and uncontrolled authority. The (Kent's Commentaries, Vol. I., Sees.
469 and following.)
humblest subject might shut the door
of his cottage, against the king, and Therefore it is established beyond all
defend from intrusion that privacy
which was as sacrced as the royal pre- question, that those principles of the

rogatives. Common Law which have not been

The system was the opposite of ser- specifically set aside by the various
Constitutions, adopted by the people in
vile; its features implied boldness and
independence, self-reliance on the part this Republic, are today a part of the
law of the land.
of the people."
Let me give you an illustration : You
Then Judge Cooley speaks glowingly
of how the American Colonists claimed and I contracted statutory marriages;
we went to the Ordinary, applied for
for themselves all the rights conferred
a license, delivered that license to a
upon Englishmen by the Common Law,
minister of the Gospel, and invoked his
one of which was that trials for crime services to perform the ceremony which
must be by a jury of the neighborhood completed the statutory marriage.
in which the alleged criminal lived.
But for thousands of years, it has
No punishment for crime, until after been the law among our people, that
the statutory' marriage was not the only
indictment by the grand jury, and the
unanimous verdict of the twelve in the one. You could take your loved one

box. by the hand, she consenting, and lead
her to the presence of two or three
Then Judge Cooley says that by this friends, and you could say to her: "I

English Comruon Law which became, take you for my wife, for better or for

through adoption, the American Com- worse, in. sickness and in health, till
mon Law, American risrhts are ad-
death do us part."

And she could say to you: "I take
vou for mv husband, and I will be true

10

to you as long as life shall last," and I stand flat-footed upon that asser-
these simple declarations, constituting tion : I challenge contradiction ; I defy
the historian, or the lawyer, or the pub-
a civil contract between the free man licist, or the arrogant official, who is
and the free woman, made a perfectly now cracking his whip over the intimi-
dated American people.
legal marriage.
I defy him to show that any such
It is so in Georgia at this very day. outrage was ever perpetrated upon the
men of Old England, as now threatens
By the decision of the highest court the young men of this Republic.
in the great State of New York, it is
(See Blackst one's Commentaries,
the hiw of that imperial common-
Book 1, Pars. 137-138, and the deci-
wealth, at this very hour. sions cited in the Sharswood Edition

I mention this simply as an illustra- of 1877.)

tion of the Common Law, which you Another one of these original and
native rights of the Anglo-Saxon is,
—will not find in any of the codes State that he shall not be deprived of his

or Federal. property, his liberty, or his life, with-

In like manner, there are other Com- out due process of law.

mon Law rights which do not depend When that provision was written
into Magna Charta, 700 years ago, it
upon written codes. One of these Com-
was not a new doctrine. It was an old
mon Law rights which, according to doctrine, reasserted by brave men who
Sir Edward Coke and Sir William had swords in their hands, and meant

Blackstone, constitute a part of our to die as rebels against a tyrannical

Common Law rights, is that of abiding king ,if he did not consent to the resto-
in our own country, so long as it is our
ration of that ancient birthright of all
pleasure to remain there.
Englishmen.
The most tyrannical king of England
never had the lawful power to send Those rebels who, with drawn
swords, confronted their usurping king
a subject out of the realm against the at Runnymede, in the year 1215, were
not clamoring for a novelty, innova-
will of that subject.
tion, or revolutionary change.
The veriest plowman that ever wore
hodden gray and munched his crust of On the contrary, they unfurled their
dry bread, to satisfy his hunger at the
banners, erected the standard of re-
end of a day's work, could stand firmly bellion, and drew their swords against
upon the soil of Old England and defy the king, to prevent a revolutionary
change of law which threatened to de-
the most tyrannical king who ever ar- stroy the rights of the individual, and
to give the king unlimited power over
rayed himself in the purple and fine the property and the persons of Eng-
linen of royal office, and could say to
lishmen.
that king : "It is my right to abide in
my native land." Rather than submit to this, they
preferred to fight, and to die.
No Act of Parliament could ever
(See Cooley's Constitutional Limi-
banish the citizen, except as a punish- tations, Chap. III. and notes: pars.

ment for crime, after indictment by the 311, 314: 209: 430.)
. grand jury, and the unanimous verdict
Has the terrible necessity come upon
of the twelve in the box.
us again to learn, that in every govern-
The soldier who voluntarily enlisted,
ment, the tendency of power is, to en-
became of course a soldier for all pur-
poses, and he could be sent, at the com- croach ?

mand of his superiors, to the uttermost Human nature is just so constituted

ends of the earth, but I challenge any that no mortal can be safely trusted
lawyer in this Union to controvert the
proposition, that no subject of Great with too much authority; he will
Britain was ever forced out of those abuse it; the record of the human

islands against his will, prior to the

year 1917. except as a punishment for

crime, or because of his voluntary en-
listment, or illegal kidnapping, into the

Army and Navy.

11

race teaches this with a sadder empha- tine, was preaching his Sermon on the
sis, than almost any other lesson. Mount ?

Patrick Henry said, in the times that Have we lived to see the day when
the revered name of Democracy will
tried men's souls: "Eternal vigilance
be prostituted to the most terrible
is the price of liberty." wrongs that were ever perpetrated
Herbert Spencer said, that in all re- against a free people, whose inherited,

publics, the existence of free principles priceless, blood-bought jewels of per-

depended upon prompt and fearless re- sonal rights were fondly believed to
sistance to the encroachments of those
who are in power. be treasured forever in the casket of
constitutional law?
At this very day, when weak citi-
Let us consider for a moment the
zens throughout the land are commit- meaning of the words: "no man shall
ting suicide, because of the horrible
measures recently adopted by the Wil- be deprived of life, liberty or prop-
son administration, there is an impera- erty, without due process of law" : does

tive demand upon the stronger men, that mean by act of the Legislature, or
by act of Congress? If so, it was a
that they denounce these unlawful en- waste of time to write them into that
croachments, and combat these uncon- permament declaration called the Con-
stitutional acts of Congress, by those stitution, which Congress was forbid-
peaceable methods, which the wise
foresight of our ancestors provided in den to change, unless three- fourths of
the Supreme Law, for that very pur- the States, by legislative action, de-

pose. manded that change.
If there is any principle, which no
By the original, native rights of our
great white race, every member of this competent lawyer will dispute, it is that
the Constitution of the United States
unconquerable family was safeguarded
which the President swears to support^
in his property, in his liberty, in his must be supported as written, until
amended in the manner which the Con-
—life until a jury of his equals, after
stitution itself prescribes.
hearing all the evidence, both ways,
decided that they were forfeited. President Woodrow Wilson, on the
4th of March, 1917, called God and
The property might be the humblest
the people to witness that he renewed
little bit of scraggy land, with a ruined
hut upon it, as the great Earl of his oath of fidelity to this Constitu-

Chatham said in the British Parlia- tion.
ment ; it might be a ruinous tenement
in which the snow and the rain could In that Constitution it is written in
beat and enter, but the King of Eng- the plainest possible language, that no
citizen of this Kepublic shall be robbed
land could not cross that threshold,
without the written authority of the of his liberty, coerced in his conduct,

law. made to serve against his will, except
by due process of law.
The citizen who was thus protected
Again I appeal to all lawyers to
by the primeval principles of Anglo- speak out, and tell the people the mean-
Saxon law, might be the very hum-
blest, meanest, most insignificant of all ing of those words.

human beings, but the law was no re- Time and again the highest authori-

specter of persons: it drew no line be- ties, the standard writers, the highest
tween the palace and the hovel: it courts have held, that an Act of Con-
thought no more of Di\5es, at the ban- gress is not due process of law.
quet board, than of Lazarus, grovelling
A statute passed by the Legislature,
at the gate.
is not due process of law.
Great God ! Must we Americans of
No man can be deprived of his life,
this twentieth century bid farewell to
by the Act of the Legislature.
those sacred principles of personal lib- ^
erty, that were as sturdy as the oaks No man can be robbed of his prop-

in the German forests, when Jesus erty, by Act of Congress.
The law of Eminent Domain subjects
Christ, a homeless wanderer in Pales-
your property to the service of your

12

! !! !

country, but the causes and the methods Judge Cooley quotes the definition
laid down by Daniel Webster during
are jealously guarded. his argument in the celebrated Dart-
mouth College case: "by the law of the
Judge Cooley in Chap, XI. of his land, is most clearly intended the gen-
standard work, enters at large upon the eral law; a law Avhich hears, before it
discussion of what is meant by the condemns; which proceeds upon in-
phrases "due process of law," and "the quiry, and renders judgment only after
law of the land." trial. The meaning is, that every citi-

There never was a time in the history zen shall hold his life, liberty, prop-
of our Eepublic, when that chapter de- erty and immunities under the protec-
served more prayerful consideration. tion of the general rules which govern

Sir William Blackstone said that the society."
Great Charter of our liberties would
have deserved its name, had it con- Judge Cooley says, par. 354, that a
tained no other provision than that "no legislative act is not necessarily the law

free man shall be taken, or imprisoned, of the land.

or disseized, or outlawed, or banished, He says that the words, "by the law

or any ways destroyed, nor will the of the land," as used in the Constitu-
king pass upon him, or commit him to
prison, unless by the judgment of his tion, do not mean a statute, passed for
peers, or the law of the land." the purpose of working the wrong.
That construetion would render the re-
No free man shall be taken striction absolutely nugatory, and turn
Thus spoke the Barons who held this part of the Constitution into mere

their gleaming swords in their hands. nonsense.''''
It was seven hundred and two years
The people would be made to say
ago, this summer. They were not pro- to the two Houses (of Congress, of
claiming a new principle. They were
resurrecting an old one. They were course), "you shall be vested with the
calling upon it to roll away the stone, legislative power of the State, but, no
and to come forth radiant, with re- one shall be disfranchised, or deprived
newed life, from the sepulchre in which of any of the rights or privileges of a
a tyrannical monarch had haughtily citizen, unless you pass a statute for
supposed he had buried it forever. that purpose. In other wordjs, you
shall not do the wrong, unless you
In this free Republic ten million free choose to do it!"

men have already been taken, not by Could language be plainer?

due process of law, but by the arbitrary Could any standard authority more
act of a government, drunk on power emphatically deny the right of Con-

No free man shall be imprisoned ! gress to confiscate the liberties of the
And yet the jails today are crowded
with free Americans whom no grand citizen, by the mere passage of a statute

jury has accused, and no traverse jury to that effect?

convicted. Judge Cooley, in his foot-note cites
more than a dozen decisions of the
No free man shall be banished highest courts, to the effect that an' Act
And yet, by the living God, the Pres- of Congress, or an Act of the Legisla-
ture is not the due process of law, and
ident of the United States publicly de- IS not the law of the land, which can

clares that we will banish millions of legally deprive the citizen of his prop-
American citizens, and send them to die
erty, his liberty, or his life.
on foreign fields of blood
Paragraph 355, of Judge Cooley's
In the name of the Almighty, what book quotes the words of the Supreme
Court of the United States in two dif-
spirit of evil has taken possession of ferent decisions, which have never been
the Federal government?
reversed or questioned.
How is it that madness so rules the
The first quotation is: "Due process
hour in Washington? of law undoubtedly means, in the due

Who can explain the spell of terror

which has fallen upon the once fear-
less and independent people of this
Union ?

13

course of legal proceedings, according it would be strange indeed, if it did
to those rules and forms which have not equally protect the white men.

been established for the protection of The plain prohibition of this su-
preme law is, that neither slaverj'- nor
private rights."
involuntary servitude shall exist in the
The second quotation is »as'*to**th*e U. S., except as a punishment for crime,
words from Magna Charta.
after indictment by grand-jury, and a
the good sense of mankind has at length verdict of guilty, by the petit jury.

—settled down to this, that they were As everybody knows, the preposi-
tions "neither" and "nor" are disjunc-
intended to secure the individual from
tive; they separate, instead of uniting;
the arbitrary exercise of the powers
of government, unrestrained by the the subjects referred to; consequently,

established principles of private rights the use of those words prove that the
constitution means to prohibit any
and distributive justice.'' form of involuntary servitude, al-
(Some of the decisions cited are as though such servitude might not
amount to slavery.
follows: MacMillan v. Anderson, 95 U.
S. 37; Pearson v. Yewdal, 95, U. S. For instance: the Federal Courts
have punished white men in various
294; Davidson v. New Orleans, 96, U. parts of the South, because those white
men co-erced negroes into working out
S. 97.) the debts which those negroes had con-

Judge Cooley in par. 356 superbly tracted.
sums up the gist of all these decisions,
saying: "Due process of law in each You can't make a negro plow for you
particular case means, such an exertfbn
this year, because he came out in your
of the powers of government as the debt, on the transactions of last year.
settled maxims of law permit and sanc-
tion, and under such safe-guards for If you co-erce him in any way to give

the protection of individual rights, as you his labor, against his will, because
of last year's debt, you are guilty of
those maxims prescribe."
Use your native intelligence, and ap- peonage. It is not a system of slavery,
because you certainly could not buy and
ply these legal principles announced by sell negroes under the peonage system.

the highest authorities, and by the But if the negro is not willing to
work out the debt, and you exercise any
highest court in the world, and answer sort of duress over him, to compel him
to 'do it, it does amount to involuntary
me this question:
servitude.
How does the Conscription Law,
Now let me ask this plain question,
rushed upon the people by Congress,
in the utmost good faith j
in i\.pril, 1917, accord with the time- Has the Federal Government, since

honored principles of Magna Charta, the adoption of the Thirteenth Amend-
ment, in 1865, had any lawful authority
as embodied in the Bill of Rights of
every State, and as crystalized in the to establish a system of slavery, or of
Constitution of the United States?
involuntary servitude, except as a pun-
If Congress, under the whip and ishment for crime?

spur of a President, can abolish the Where is the lawyer who will contend

Constitutional guarantees, which were that Congress has the authorit}^ to call

supposed to perpetually sanctify your into the service of the government, a

personal liberty, then it logically and million men to construct post-roads,
work upon the harbors, and the dock-
necessarily follows that you hold your
yards; labor at the arsenals, or in the
property, and your life at the mercy "National Parks?
of a partisan majority in your National
Where is the member of Congress
Legislature. who would dare to introduce a bill,
compelling all young men to register,
But there is another clause of the in order that the government might

constitution which is violated by the

conscription law; it is the Thirteenth

Amendment to the Constitution of the

U. S., adopted in 1865.

Of course the _ of the gov-

intention

ernment was, to protect the negro, but

14

make a selective draft of those who are of the sessions of the Convention, we

needed to build forts and ships? find that our forefathers agreed that
Yet, it must be perfectly clear to
the best way to safeguard democratic
every mind, that the government has
principles, and republican institutions
just as much right to create a system against the admitted and formidable
menace of the standing army, was to
of servile labor, as it has to create a limit military appropriations to two
system of unwilling service in the
years.
Army.
It was argued that the Representa-
The language of the Supreme Law is tives would have to return to the people
every two years, to give an account of
without limit, and without qualifica- themselves, when asking a re-election,
and that therefore a two year limit on
tion. an appropriation to raise armies, would
forever secure our people from the ad-
"Neither slavery, nor involuntary mitted menace of the standing army in
time of peace.
servitude shall exist in the U. S."
In Macaulay's History we read that
Can any man say that the Conscrip- it was a recognized truism, "a funda-

tion Acts do not create a system of in- mental principle of political science,
voluntary servitude ? that a standing army and a free Con-
stitution could not exist together."
Does any man deny that it was rail-
(See Macaulay's History of England,
roaded through Congress for that very Chapter XXIII., p. 259.)
purpose ?
In Hallam's Constitutional History,
We read in sacred and profane his-
we find him quoting an English states-
tory, of the imperial requirements thai man who was not a democrat, and who
had no grievance against the govern-
the people go up and be numbered, for
the purpose of taxation; but never be- ment, as saying:

fore since written records preserved "A standing army . . . are a body
the doings of tyrants in office, has any of men distinct from the body of the
great nation, calling itself a free people,
people; they are governed by different
and shielded from usurpation by a free laws; blind obedience and entire sub-
Constitution, been required to drop all mission to the orders of their command-
peaceful pursuits, appear before otii ing officer is their only principle. The
cial autocrats, and register themselvos nations around us are already enslaved,
and they have been enslaved by those
as fit subjects to be sacrificed to a bar-
very means. By means of standing
baric god of war, in a foreign land.
armies, they have every one lost their
My Countrymen, I hold here in my
liberties. It is indeed impossible that
hand, the published report of James
Madison, of the secret proceedings of the liberties of the people can be pre-
the Constitutional Convention of 1T87. served in any country, where a numer-
Almost at the beginning you see here,
on page 67, where it was proposed to ous standing army is kept up."
invest Congress with the unlimited
power to raise armies, just as it was in- (Constitutional History of England,
vested with the unlimited power to page 778.)
establish postoffices, to coin money, to
Not only has this Congress provided
establish rules of naturalization, to for a standing army of half a million
men, but the military appropriations
regulate commerce, to borrow money, made, by the authorization of boncis
and emit bills of credit. and direct expenditures from the Treas-
ury, absolutely trample out of exis-
I turn to later pages in the book, tence the two year safe-guard so care-
and find, where long-headed statesmen fully constructed by the makers of the
warned the Convention against the in- Constitution of the United States.
herent danger of maintaining standing
armies in time of peace. So far as the State Militia is con-

TVe go from page to page, and we cerned, the Supreme Law leaves no
notice how those wise men deliberated
upon the best method of safe-guarding

our liberties against the well recog-

nized danger of the standing Army,
At length, on page 705, near the close

15

room for doubt; it cannot be legally sumption of the attitude of armed neu-
used by the Federal Government for
trality. He was already in possession
—any other purposes than those named of the facts. He was in possession of

in the Constitution to repel invasion, Germany's threat of ruthless enforce-

to suppress insurrection, and to en- ment of her blockade.

force the laws. Everything that he knows now, he
knew on the 26th day of February,
In the Conscription Acts therefore, when he took up his position of armed

a revolution is precipitated upon the neutrality.
country, and what is the reason alleged
In the name of a just God, what has
—for this overthrow of fundamental happened since, to justify such a com-

principles the headlong rush into plete and tragic reversal of the Presi-
governmental usurpation?
dent's position?
If you will carefully consider the
—I cite the highest standard on the
War Message, issued by the President,
Law of Nations, Vattel the authority
you will see that this government is
plunging into the European cataclysm used again and again in Congressional

for three purposes: debates by Daniel Webster, Henry

First, to avenge the injuries in- Clay, John C. Calhoun, Alex. H. Steph-
ens and Robt. Toombs.
flicted by Germany upon the United
Go and read what Vattel says about
States.
the legal causes of war, and see for
Second, to avenge the injuries in- yourself how slight ours are.

flicted by Germany upon certain Euro- What is the cause of this war?

pean nations. It resolves itself into this question:

Third, to avert the menace to our What is legal notice of a blockade ?
liberties, involved in German industry,
England has blockaded Germany:
German commerce, German conquest of
territory, and German militarism. Germany has blockaded England. The

Very briefly I will say, that the blockade runners want to get to these
record as presented by the President two nations, for the big money there

himself, in his War Message, discloses is in it. (Vattel 335.)

the amazing fact that Germany has If we have loaned money to Eng-

not changed her attitude in the slight- land and France to help make war, we
est, nor inflicted any additional wrong
upon us, since February 26, at which Wehave not been neutral. are still
time the President went before Con- —doing it the Liberty Bonds prove it.
gress and read a carefully prepared
address in which he declared that our J. P. Morgan cleaned up ninety million
position should be that of armed neu-
dollars as part of his share.
trality.
Vattel lays down as authority that,
This means of course, that we should
if we supply one warring nation with
have got ready to repel any invasion of
our soil, and should use our fleet to pro- what it needs, we are not neutral.
tect our commerce upon the ocean.
I have contended all along that we
Just a few days before the President
renewed his oath of office, he apparently have no moral right to sell to England,
had no thought of sending vast armies
to Europe, no thought of interfering France and Russia: a nation holding
and crushing the militaj-y system of the high moral attitude we do, should
Germany, no thought of employing
huge armaments to check the expansion not give a man a new pistol, when the

of German industry, commerce and old one is worn out.
territorial expansion of the Old World.
— Germany didn't need guns nor food
As I have already said, what was England needed both.
writ, was writ.
The men who supplied both got rich,
It all preceded the President's as-
and they want to get richer.

The powder trust, steel trust, auto-

mobile trust, beef trust, flour trust,

shoe trust, cloth trust, want to heap

up mountains of gold on the blood of

our sons.

What is legal notice of a blockade?

I contend that suspected vessels

16

;

should be detained until they can be of the belligerents were vanquished and
searched.
left with rankling memories.
When that law was framed, the sub-
And he also said in his speech of
marines were not invented. May 13, 1917, that we are not in the ^oar

Germany contends (and this is not hecaiise of any 'particular gi'ievance of
our own.
sound law until the Law of Nations
From the Woodrow Wilson of April
has been changed) that the nature of 2nd, I appeal to the Woodrow Wilson
the submarine makes it impossible to
give a warning without destroying the of December and January, and say
usefulness of the submarine. without fear of contradiction from any

Germany gave due notice that on source, that if the Woodrow Wilson of
and after February 1st, all vessels en-
tering the blockaded zone would do so January, 1917, was anywhere in the
at their own risk.
neighborhood of right, the Woodrow
Germany says a published notice is
Wilson of April the 2nd, 1917, was
all that is necessary. nowhere in its vicinity.

Congressman Mason of Illinois, According to Vattel's Law of Na-
started to fight for an amendment to
the conscription law, on June IT, in tions, and according to principles laid
the House of Representatives, to keep down by Chancellor Kent in his Com-
mentaries, no Nation has any right
your sons at home. whatever to interfere by force of arms,
Meetings of protest are being held with the governmental system of an-

from Maine to California. other.

Why were not the volunteers per- Neither has any Nation the right to
avenge the wrongs inflicted by some
mitted to go, under Roosevelt? other Nation upon one of its neighbors
nor has any Nation the right to make
Let any man go to fight, who wants war upon a neighboring Nation, be-
cause of its growth in power, unless
to go. that growth is an immediate, urgent
and unavoidable menace to the safety
The injuries to ourselves, of whicri
complaint is now made, have been con- of the smaller nation. *
doned by repeated and official assur-
ances of continued friendship, and by (See Vattel Law of Nations, pages

proposals to mediate a peace without 302, 305, 306, 335.)
victory for any combatant, or humilia-
tion for any. Note: The foregoing is the gist of

The President said himself, that —the address, although its length two
peace could not be permanent if any —honrs teas too great for us to give it

in full in this pamphlet.

17

Additional Fads for You to Consider

1st. That we are proposing to give England expects us to make good
Germany an all-imder hold, by going what she lost when Eussia drew out
to attack her at the place which her of the war; consequentyl. our govern-
ment has assumed the tremendous bur-
experts selected at their leisure for
den of putting at least four or five mil-
the purposes of defense, and which they
have had three years to fortifj'^ and lions of our best young men on the Eu-
make impregnable, so far as military
ropean battle-lines, with the certainty
art could achieve its object. that at least one million of these Amer-

Is it sound common sense and sound ican soldiers will be killed ever}^ year,
military tactics to make war upon the
enemy where we are weakest, and as long as the war shall last.
farthest away from our base of sup-
Are 5^ou prepared for that stupen-
plies and reinforcements?
Shall we surrender, voluntarily to dous sacrifice of the best soldiers that

the enemy, the vast advantage of mak- our country can produce?
ing the fight on ground that the enemy
chooses, and fortifies, and which is 4th. When the government demands

nearest to the enemy's base of supplies of the people, within six months of the
and reinforcements ? time war was declared, such colossal

2nd. If we were to spend the same outlays as seventeen billions of dollars,
amount of money in fortifying our own
country against attack, that we are and two millions of men, the reasons
now spending to finance the fighting in actuating the government should be
Europe, would we not thereby render made so plain, that the simplest mind
our own count r}^ perfectly safe from
will understand.
attack?
Has that been done?
Does not the loss of every American The latest declaration upon the sub-
soldier, killed in Europe, weaken our ject, from official sources, is that made
man-power for the purposes of self- by the Hon. Robt. Lansing, Secretary
of State, and we must assume that he
defense ? speaks by authority of the President.

Does not the loss of every billion dol- Mr. Lansing, in his address to the
lars, sunk in the European War, lessen,
to that extent, our money-power for sixteen hundred officers in Xew York,

self-defense? a few days ago. contradicts what the
President said in his Red Cross ad-
3rd. Germany and her allies can dress, contradicts what Secretary Lane
draw soldiers from populations num- said, in his speech to the assembled
bering nearly two hundred millions. workers of his department, and contra-

Russia is virtually out of the war, dicts what Secretary McAdoo said in

and therefore the European nations his talk to the bankers and business
that are fighting the German allies, men, at Des Moines, Iowa.

—can only draw from populations Mr. Lansing discards all the previous
—France, England and Italy number-
statements, that we are in the war for
ing about one hundred and twenty-five an ideal, and to make the world "sale

millions. for democracy." He no longer makes

Therefore, you see, at a glance, what the astounding assertion that our Gov-
England expects of us; in fact, Eng- ernment was created for world-wide ag-
gressiveness, in the interest of world-
land's expectation has been expressed
in the British Parliament, during the Avide democratic institutions.

last few days, by Sir Edward Carson, Mr. Lansing no longer makes the
a member of the government: amazing assertion, that we are not in
the war because of any special griev-
ance of our own; on the contrary, he
now says to the young officers who have

mvolunteered to sacrifice their lives Gth. In preparing for this European
adventure, the Federal Government has
Europe, that they are g'oing across the already created a huge standing army
ocean, to do battle against Germany, in of enlisted men, numbering 800,000:
that regular army is to be kept in this
order that our own future may be safe
from German attack. country.

If you will think the facts over, it What for?
will occur at once to your mind, that
never before in the history of man- Already the Executive branch of the
kind, did any nation involve itself in Government has swallowed the Legis-
lative, and the President has demand-
such prodigious sacrifices of treasure ed and secured more personal power
than any Kaiser ever possessed.
and of blood, to ward off what is now
What for?
—admitted to be, by the Secretary of
Not only has Kaiser Wilson made
State, a danger not to our present, but
to our future, and therefore imaginary, himself absolute Dictator of Congress

instead of actual. and the Army, but he has established a

With a wave of his hand, the Secre- dictatorship over the staff-of-life of

tary of State puts aside the contention 100,000,000 people.

that we have set out to repel an attack What for?
which Germany has already made upon
Already there has been created at
us. Washington a government by auto-
cratic Bureaus, fully as arbitrary and
With a wave of his hand, Secretary autocratic as any that ever existed in
Lansing disposes of the silly contention Russia or Germany.
that we have been attacked.
What for?
He abandons all the former pretenses
Already, the people are suffering
made by Mr. Lane, made by Mr. Mo- from the insolent intimidations of
Adoo, and made by Mr. Wilson, and he spies, deputy marshals, postmasters, re-
now says that we are not fighting on cruiting officers, and District Attor-
account of anything that Germany has neys?
done in the past, or is now doing, in
What for?
the present, but on account of some-
Already, the Government has cre-
thing Germany may do, in the future.
Great God ! What are we to think ated a machiner}^ for the utter destruc-
tion of free speech, free press, peace-
of our head men at Washington, when
none of them agrees with any other, able assemblage, and of the legitimate

as to the true cause of the war, and agitation of righteous discontent.
when such prodigious outlays of money
What for ?
and men have already been pledged to
7th. Study conditions carefully and
this preposterous undertaking, ask yourself whether it does not seem
5th. Is it worth while to remind to be the fixed purpose of the Federal
Government to obliterate the States,
the world that the Law of Nations and abolish the Militia, destroy our Con-
of God are against us, when we make stitutional guarantees, and to estab-
lish a militar}^ despotism for the benefit
war without having a just cause?
Is it worth while to remind our pub- of the Aristocrats of Special Privilege.

lic servants in Washington City, that The classes need a huge Standing
they are the sworn subjects of the Con- Army, to overawe the oppressed
stitution of the United States, and that masses, and to compel the mute sub-

this Constitution does not authorize, mission of the victimized producers,
while they are being inhumanly ])lun-
or contemplate any other kind of war, dered and oppressed by the insatiable
except one of self-defense, when our beneficiaries of class-legislation.
country is being invaded hj armed
foes, or when domestic insurrection anil
concerted resistance to the laws of the

United States threaten the existence of
the Government.

19

KNOWID YOU that, in England-

The Roman Catholic Hierarchy sup-

pressed the book which informed the people

of the lewd, obscene questions which bachelor

priests put to women in the privacy of the Confes-

sional Box?
They are now trying to repeat the process in the

State of Georgia, by PROSECUTING THOS. E.
WATSON.

You can see for yourself what those questions

are by purchasing a copy of Watson's work.

The Roman Catholic

Hierarchy

The book is beautifully printed, on good paper,
is illustrated with many pictures, is bound substan-
tially in thick paper, and will tell you many things of

the papacy which you don't know, and should know.

Price, prepaid, = = = = = $1.00
5.00
Six copies, one order, = = 9.00

A dozen copies, one order, =

Address

JEFFERSONIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY

Thomson, - Georgia